Steam humidifiers are frequently used to reduce the symptoms of colds and coughs. You can add medications to the base water that will help to soothe tight chests and sore throats. The steam helps to open up your nasal passages, too, and these units are often recommended for people who have respiratory symptoms. Parents often use steam humidifiers in nurseries or children's' bedrooms, if they have the sniffles. The steam kills germs that are present in the air, and they are thus quite helpful for people with respiratory issues. Place units where children cannot reach them if they get up at night, because the steam is quite hot when it first comes out of the unit.

Steam humidifiers save money by using tap water, but they do use more electricity than evaporative or spray humidifiers. Take the time to clean out your Honeywell steam humidifier at least once a year, to get rid of the lime scale deposits. You should also empty the water from the base if you won't be using the unit for awhile, or the water can become full of bacteria.

Your home's humidity should stay at a relatively constant level of about 35 to 50 percent. You'll want to add a bit more humidity during the winter months, as a rule, and a bit less in the summer, when the air is already quite humid. If you live in arid areas like the western United States, you may need to use a humidifier year round. Most homes in the Midwest or East Coast only need them in the winter months.

Although the health benefits of humidifiers are known, there are other reasons to use the units, as well. Humidity in some form and at low levels actually benefits your home. Very low humidity can cause wood to crack, wallpaper to peel and wood flooring to split. Using a humidifier when needed can save you repair bills in the future.

Humidity also helps the air in your home feel warmer. Those who live in areas with hot and humid summers already know this. But in the winter, you want the air to feel warmer in your home. And the warmer you and your family feel, the less you will need to run the furnace. That saves money right there.

Desktop humidifiers are easy to move from one room to another, and they are handy, but they tend to require more maintenance than whole house humidifiers. The larger household Honeywell steam humidifier units can help to humidify your whole house.

You will find positives and negatives about this system of dehumidifying the air in your home. If your entire house does need to be dehumidified, a central system can eliminate the problem of lugging a small unit to each room. But if you only have problem areas within your home, you don't want to use the full dehumidifying of a central unit, because it will dry out the other areas. They will then have too little humidity, which is another problem in and of itself.

To solve this problem, Honeywell units come with humidistats, and these allow you to control the humidity level in each room. In this manner, you can treat only the areas that need it, without having a noisy device in the rooms that need dehumidified.

Honeywell dehumidifiers also have a large capacity, which means they won't need emptied as often, and you can tie them into a drain if you don't want to have to worry about emptying them at all. A Honeywell dehumidifier may be the right unit for you if you live in a geographical area where humidity is a problem year-round. If you only need dehumidifiers during the summer months, you might want to select smaller units and just put them where you need them.

Humidifiers are also helpful on warm summer nights to remove hot, sticky air from your bedroom. If you use them, you may find that you sleep more soundly and wake up feeling rested and refreshed in the morning. In addition, if your home has a long-term humidity problem, your wallpaper and paint can blister from the condensation that forms near windows or water pipes. Excess humidity often causes problems for people with allergies.

If you want to use dehumidifiers in your bedrooms, make sure before you buy them that the units are not too noisy. A small level of noise is acceptable for all but lighter sleepers, since it mainly makes its way into your subconscious as white noise. If you would like to use a dehumidifier in an area that is not fully heated, make sure that the unit has a frost detector or shut-off so that it won't be damaged by freezing of the internal parts of the unit.

Some humidifiers come with wheels, which can be quite handy if you need one in various rooms at various times. They are also helpful in getting the unit to a drain, if the water container on the unit is too heavy to carry. It's also handy to have units that have their own humidistat, so that they can cycle off when the humidity is at an acceptable level. Check for the location of the on/off switch as well. If you have a Honeywell dehumidifier unit in a bedroom that you want to turn off, place it so that you can reach the switch without waking anyone up.

You will find that cool mist humidifiers are quite easy to clean, and the mist makes your rooms very comfortable and easier to breathe in. The only slight drawback is that these units tend to be noisier than warm mist humidifiers, and they may feel clammy to the touch at certain temperatures.

In a nursery, a cool mist humidifier can help when your little one gets sick with a cold or upper respiratory infection. Doctors suggest that you use cool mist units for babies, because there is less of a chance that the unit will overheat, and in a young child's room, you don't risk the burn dangers associated with a steam humidifier.

Warm air mist units may be a bit more effective than the cool mist models, only because the warm air helps to kill off bacteria. You'll want to use distilled water in a cool mist unit, and change the filter once or twice a year, so you'll find positives and negatives to both models.

If you select a Honeywell cool mist humidifier for your house, you might want to use one that has a built-in humidistat, which will keep the area around it at a steady level, and cycle off when that level is achieved. If you are choosing smaller units for single rooms, it's also a good idea to select a model that shuts off automatically when the water tank runs dry.

A cool mist unit will tend to add a bit of a chill to a closed room if you run it during the wintertime, so you may want to leave the doors open on rooms you are using this type of unit it. Alternately, you can run up the thermostat just a bit in any room you're humidifying, so that your child is comfortable.

Since cool mist humidifiers are the models most often recommended for your baby's room, you'll wish to select a unit that runs quietly. The baby's safety is of the utmost importance. Use only models with a humidistat in your nursery and children's rooms, so that they can shut off when not needed.

Your choice of which type of cool mist humidifier to choose is really just a personal one. They all work well to keep your office or home more comfortable when the air is dry. If the humidity level drops below thirty percent, it can dry out your mucous membranes and lead to infection and colds. Low humidity also aggravates asthma symptoms.

An evaporation wick cool mist humidifier uses a simple wick to absorb water, which is then expelled into the air. These are handy because they regulate themselves. An impeller humidifier has a spinning disc that creates the cool mist, which is quieter than the fan-driven models. Ultrasonic humidifiers are more modern, and they create the cool mist through the vibration of water via sound waves. They are almost silent, so they are great for bedrooms and nurseries. Be sure to use distilled water in your Honeywell cool mist humidifier, which will help in preventing the buildup of scale or crusty mineral deposits, which can lead to mold development.