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Healthy room climate
Decisive for our well-being in closed rooms is the humidity: values between 40-50 percent are considered to be particularly compatible. Use a hygrometer to measure if your rooms are too humid or too dry!
The easiest and cheapest way to optimize the humidity is by properly heating and regularly ventilating:
Correct heating
Never allow your rooms to cool completely, even when you are away. Those who turn on the radiators fully in the evening to get comfortable temperatures consume a great deal of energy and ensure a high level of air and thus also increased dust circulation.
Right airing
Do not let the window tilt or stand open for hours. Better is regular airing when the air in the room is exhausted: open the window for three to five minutes. This brings in fresh oxygen and allows moisture and dust to escape without the basic temperature dropping significantly. Who ventilates rooms with passage, should not stay in them because of the risk of cold.
What can you do if your rooms are too dry or too humid despite proper ventilation and heating?
If the humidity in the rooms is permanently too high, condensate will form in places with a lower surface temperature. The water can damage the building and the interior. As a rule, the growth of fungi and microorganisms is also promoted. Exposed areas, such as poorly insulated exterior walls, windows, corners or edges are particularly at risk. In such cases it is important to control existing sources of moisture and to remove moist air in a targeted manner:
What can you do...
- Only cook with lid or pressure cooker, which also saves time and energy
- Always switch on the steam extractor for a short time.
- Ventilate the bathroom vigorously after showering and bathing and then open the bathroom door again.
- Do not dry laundry in the apartment.
- Seal window joints or insulate your windows.
- Moisture can also get into the apartment through barely visible structural damage to the house. For larger problems, do not just inspect the apartment, but also the whole house.
- Molds on the walls, peeling wallpaper or paint and stains require a specialist ...
Especially in the winter months, many people complain because of dry heating air on irritated mucous membranes, chapped skin or burning eyes. In the first place, we do not care about the dry air, but millions of tiny dust particles, which are stirred up by the rising heat of the radiators and inhaled by us.
What can you do for an optimal indoor climate ...
- Place a bowl of water in the too dry rooms.
- Humid outside air can not increase the humidity in the rooms, because cold air absorbs less water than the warm room air. The more aired, the drier the room becomes.
Example: In winter, the outside temperature is 2 degrees. The air then often has a relative humidity of 80 percent, that is a good 3 grams of water per cubic meter of air. If this air is heated to 20 degrees inside, the 3 grams of water per cubic meter of air only suffice for a relative humidity of almost 25 percent, that is, the air dries up.
Short-term relief is provided by humidifiers. They release their moisture into the room air, thus binding the flying dust particles and sinking to the floor. But due to this increased humidity, there is also an increased risk of mold, which does neither the room nor the man good.
But it depends mainly on the product: "Ökotest" has, for example, tested 15 humidifiers and only four got away well. So get proper advice before shopping or inform yourself in detail at the Consumer Headquarters. A humidifier should be equipped with a humidistat, which can regulate the humidity by switching the humidifier on and off. Set the controller, the so-called hygrostat, to a maximum of 45 percent humidity. Calcified water can cause stains on your furniture, so it's best to fill with distilled water in your humidifier.
