Humidifiers For The Whole House

A humidifier is a household appliance that increases humidity (moisture) in a single room or in the entire house. There are point-of-use humidifiers, which are commonly used to humidify a single room, and whole-house or furnace humidifiers, which connect to a home's HVAC system to provide humidity to the entire house.

Vaporizer (or: steam humidifier, warm mist humidifier) - boils water, releasing steam and moisture into the air. A medicated inhalant can also be added to the steam vapor to help reduce coughs. Vaporizers may be more healthful than cool mist types of humidifiers because steam is less likely to convey mineral impurities or microorganisms from the standing water in the reservoir.[1] Boiling water requires significantly more energy than other techniques. The heat source in poorly-designed humidifiers can overheat, causing the product to melt, leak, and start fires.[2]
Impeller humidifier (cool mist humidifier) - a rotating disc flings water at a diffuser, which breaks the water into fine droplets that float into the air.
Ultrasonic humidifier - a metal diaphragm vibrating at an ultrasonic frequency creates water droplets that silently exit the humidifier in the form of a cool fog. Ultrasonic humidifiers use a piezo-electric transducer to create a high frequency mechanical oscillation in a body of water. The water tries to follow the high frequency oscillation but cannot because of its comparative weight and mass inertia. Thus, a momentary vacuum is created on the negative oscillation, causing the water to cavitate into vapor. The transducer follows this with a positive oscillation that creates high pressure compression waves on the water's surface, releasing tiny vapor molecules of water into the air. This is an extremely fine mist, about one micrometre in diameter, that is quickly absorbed into the air flow. Unlike the humidifiers that boil water, these water droplets contain any impurities that are in the reservoir, including minerals from hard water (which then forms a difficult to remove white dust on nearby objects and furniture), and pathogens growing in the stagnant tank. Ultrasonic Humidifiers should be cleaned regularly to avoid bacterial contamination which may be projected into the air.