Why is humidity important at a nursing or retirement home?
In winter, heating up your retirement or nursing home will dry the indoor air, regardless of the source of heating. When relative humidity drops below 35% RH everything will dry up and everyone living in this environment will dehydrate . Typical symptoms are:
- Dry and itchy skin, dry hair, dry nose, sore throat. contact lenses prematurely drying out and causing discomfort, sore eyes
- Dust and lint particles scatter through the air increase allergies and asthma.
- Electrostatic discharge: you get small electric chock when you touch an electric appliance or even when you touch someone else. Other symptom is flyaway hair.
- Illness such as flu, caused by easy transmission of airborne viruses and dry nose and throat not properly protected by natural mucus produced by our body.
Humidifying your Retirement or Nursing home will significantly increase the health of the residents and reduce the respiratory infections.
A research from the Oregon Department of Health Services has demonstrated that the right levels of humidity can reduce and prevent against harmful bacteria and respiratory infections.
Recommended humidity level for your nursing or retirement home
The recommended humidity level for human health by ASHRAE handbooks is between 30-60%RH.
We do recommend a minimum humidity level of 40%RH
How can you bring humidity to your nursing or retirement home?
Most of the humidifier technologies are offered on the market to humidify your Retirement or Nursing Home.
Selection of the proper humidification solution should be based on the following:
- What is the required maximum humidification capacity (load) required?
- What sources of energy are available on site?
- How is the ventilation system installed and how is the air distributed?
- Which humidification system will require the least amount of energy – calculated for the overall HVAC system?
IER electric steam humidifier is an easy and efficient solution to bring humidity to your retirement or nursing home. It can be installed on the central ventilation system or locally to humidify a specific zone such as special care rooms.
ISE steam exchange or ILS Live steam humidifier are another solutions to be considered,
If raw steam from boiler is not contaminated and suitable for direct injection in the air stream, ILS humidifier is the easiest way to bring humidity to the building with a relatively low cost of ownership since minimal maintenance is required,
If raw steam from boiler is not suitable for direct injection, or if you need very safe, sterile and pure source of atmospheric steam then ISE humidifier is the best choice.
AEM evaporative humidifier is another solution to be considered when a central ventilation system is installed. Evaporative humidifier has a low cost of ownership because it can be used during summer as an evaporative cooler reducing load on other cooling equipment installed.
Contact us to locate our local steamOvap representative.