I moved to a different apartment in Helsinki this week, and it feels much drier indoors than in my previous one.
I’ve never paid much attention to humidity levels in the apartments I’ve lived in before; it has never bothered me.
I don’t know if it’s due to a different ventilation system, the very low outdoor temperature (-17 °C last night), or the fact that this apartment was empty for a couple of weeks. But it feels wrong. My 8-month-old son seems to be suffering as well.
I’ve tried simple advice I found on Google, like watering all the plants, placing a bowl of water on the radiator, and hanging wet towels and bedsheets instead of using the dryer. It doesn’t seem to help, maybe all the moisture is quickly ventilated away.
Is there something I should know? Should I do something else, or just be patient and wait for warmer days?
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1qr0c36
Posted by Ice5891
34 Comments
Buy a humidifier, when it gets very cold the air become very dry :/
The only way I found to combat this is to get a humidifier. Doesn’t really matter what type.
just got humidifier from prisma as we had house at 19% and run it at night in bedroom and got it to 30/40% as i woke up at morning with dry throath because of that.
probably thats a good choice as it doesnt fix itself when is this cold outside
Try getting an active humidifier – one that actively vapourises water rather than waiting for passive evaporation from wet items at room temperature?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/comments/1hztxsa/humidifier/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/comments/1hztxsa/humidifier/) has a few comments.
Note the requirement to use demineralised/deionised/etc water in some of them – this is important because using water with minerals (from the tap) will cause them to produce micro-particles of minerals in the air which can affect your health (they are much smaller than PM2.5 so easily inhaled).
Dry your clothes in bedroom.
Air gets dry the colder it is, completely normal. Many people experience no issues, but if you do you can consider getting e.g. [https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/196955/Ufox-U3S-ilmankostutin](https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/196955/Ufox-U3S-ilmankostutin)
That said 18% is not catastrophically low, but on the lower end. During heating season e.g. winter, the goal for people with impaired breathing etc. is usually to have 20-40%. The upper limit is also important, you start to get condensation and a host of other issues if you go past 40% when it’s cold outside and are heating the home.
Get a humidifier with hygrometer. If it doesn’t help get another. Vaporising / evaporative ones are easy to maintain, ultrasonic ones are not.
I have had a humidifier on for 1,5 months now 24h a day. I have to fill it with almist 3 liters of water twice a day.
Sometimes I get lazy and forget to fill it. I quite quick realize the mistake as my skin gets dryier and start to cough as my throught gets dry.
I should get the bigger Ufox humidifier. Now I just have the small one.
Wash some clothes and hangdry these around apartment
Get a humidifier. I recommend Ufox brand , a bit pricey but kills the bacteria. Normal humidifiers use ultrasound to produce the humidity, which in turn releases all the stuff in your water to the air, bacteria etc.
Get humidifier. Something like this:
[https://www.prisma.fi/tuotteet/102004100/house-ilmankostutin-ah5020n-102004100](https://www.prisma.fi/tuotteet/102004100/house-ilmankostutin-ah5020n-102004100)
[https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/486924/Strome-SPS-913C-ilmankostutin-musta](https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/486924/Strome-SPS-913C-ilmankostutin-musta)
That same machine is in various places with different names/models, cost around 50-60e. I have a couple of those and they have worked already for years. Just set humidity setpoint and add water regularly to 5 litre tank. Amazing devices, producing cold mist that evaporates.
I clean mine once a year after summer (no use really). I use soap water with kitchen paper to clean the areas around the ultrasonic element. There is some biological growth there.
I’d pay big bucks to reach as high as 18% humidity. I ran the humidifier all night long and still the humidity was at 15% in the morning. But yeah that’s alarmingly low and I’d highly recommend getting a good air humidifier.
Whatever you are doing, it will take a bit until you and the hygrometer will notice it. The reason is simply, everything dried out, furniture, books, other papers, etc. It all has to raise in humidity. What you did, would work, but slowly. Plus, those towels would always have to stay wet. But humidifier as most suggested is sure the fastest, and most consistent way. There are also little plastic panels with a large sheet of blotting paper inside that you can hang on radiators and fill with water. Old fashioned, but cheapest solution.
In wintertime the air is dry. The colder it gets the lower the absolute humidity of the air gets. The relative humidity of the the outside air at -20C may be at around 90%, but absolute humidity (g/m3) is very low. When the outside air comes inside through ventilation the absolute humidity remains the same, but relative humidity drops to 10-20% because warm air could hold more moisture.
The only way to increase humidity inside is to produce water vapor, i.e. humidifier. Even that will not be very efficient, as ventilation continuously brings in more dry outside air and takes inside air out.
So, humidifier may marginally improve the situation. Otherwise time will solve the issue when spring comes and weather gets warmer. 😎
Buy 3D printer. This is the best time to print.
Jokes aside – I have never had a humidifier. During winter, it is mostly dry inside and if you also overheat your apartment, you make it worse. We have approx 16 to 19 decrees inside during winter time and it makes living much more tolerable. You just have to wear some extra layers and hygge inside your sofa, but _that_ is the main reason for winter. Snugging inside your sofa and dring tea.
Buy a humidifier, but the apartment’s own ventilation system may still keep the air fairly dry. Even so, don’t block the apartment’s ventilation ducts!
Old-school Ufox humidifier. Accept no substitute.
Also I find that a combination of eye drops, a nasal spray (Nasolin A Vitamin which only acts as a moisturizes), plus a good hand cream ease most of the symptoms on your body.
Boil water in a big pod on the stove
We leave a large tray of water above the fireplace in our house over winter. No problems with dry air, and you can tell as soon as the tray is empty, so easy enough to keep it topped up.
based on my own experience, I suggest the following:
buy a humidifier at Prisma (link below).
[https://www.prisma.fi/tuotteet/100150589/ufox-u3s-ilmankostutin-valkoinen-100150589](https://www.prisma.fi/tuotteet/100150589/ufox-u3s-ilmankostutin-valkoinen-100150589)
to keep it clean, use *Sitruunahappo* regularly. the link below is just an example. any other will do, too. basically just put it in the water and watch the cleaning magic of *Sitruunahappo*
[https://www.prisma.fi/tuotteet/110684769/sini-sitruunahappo-600-g-110684769](https://www.prisma.fi/tuotteet/110684769/sini-sitruunahappo-600-g-110684769)
this is the finnish winter. kinda “it is what it is” situation. the colder the air outside, the dryer it gets inside.
you seem to be doing most of the tricks already, there are also moisturising nasal sprays and moisturising eye drops in the pharmacy. or you can try the nenäkannu (neti pot). or of course the humidifier.
during the year we go from one extremety to another, we are used to just take it, and try to find joy in the nice things.
Lower temperature to 21 and take a long hot shower venting Steam to apartment. Should help fairly quick.
Another shoutout for the Ufox U3S. Would never get an ultrasonic humidifier again after using both ultrasonic and evaporating humidifiers.
Reasons are exactly the ones you pointed out. Cold weather is dry. We have a humidifier from Clas Olson (under 100€) qnd it keeps our house humidity just over 30%.
Just last night I went to shower and afterwards started moisturizing: body lotion, night cream for face, Bepanthen sensi calm for a patch of eczema, moisture treatment for hair and scalp, foot cream, hand cream, moisturizing eye drops and A-vita hydra for nose and lip balm. Went to sleep with humidifier on. Fun times. Next up: lovely spring with street dust and pollen.
Ive been using humidifiers for years and can only recommend oscar big. Set it to 35-40% at winter and keep filling. It will need 12-18L water every day with these temps so any other way will not be even close to enough. Also those small units wont do anything.
I wonder what my apartment’s humidity is because I have never had any issues with this indoors.
I live way up in Lapland and -17° is almost a warm winter day, so our air is bone dry all the time essentially.
Get a humidifier, dry clothes on a drying rack. If you have mechanical ventilation, calculate the volume of your apartment and aim for no more than 1 air change per hour, ideally 1 air change per 2 hours. If you have a fresh air valve, open it as little as possible (if you get drowsy that means you need to open it more). Basically the key is to add humidity into the room and not ventilate it out.
get humidifier.
Leave the door open after you have a shower. Maybe even during the shower. Others have suggested to check that the temperature isn’t too high.
In reality there isn’t much you can do apart from these simple tricks. It’s just the winter here.
I had 19% in mine and developped dry eye syndrome. Got humidifier and my eyes are fine again after long time.
Buy a humidor.
Houseplants.
Buy a sweet potato, put it in a vessel with water in a manner that one end touches the water. It will grow fast and it will vaporate a lot. Remember to add water.
Please, if you buy an ultrasonic humidifier – make sure you use it with distilled/demineralized/deionized water, otherwise the evaporation will put all the minerals that are present in the tap water as white powder all over your furniture, and you will also breath it in.