Comment by unvs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by unvs | Hacker News Reader

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I bought an Awair some months ago, having been diagnosed with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and slightly freaking out, I wanted to have a bit more data on my living conditions. It measures PM2.5, VOCs, humidity, CO2 and temperature. Luckily my indoor air quality was pretty good, except for low humidity. The Awair app kept nagging me to get a humidifier, so I relented and bought one. Just some minutes after switching it on, the PM2.5 skyrocketed!

I googled for answers, and found out that Awair warned about this: https://blog.getawair.com/awair-investigates-how-your-humidi...

The humidifier was spewing crap out into my air!

I switched to distilled water and the measurements were OK again, but a bit scary to see how bad it was with regular tap water.

> Luckily my indoor air quality was pretty good, except for low humidity.

What's the problem supposed to be with low humidity? All of the humidity-related problems I know of, including discomfort, come from high humidity.

In my experience, dry, cracked lips, asthma attacks, and a stuffed-up nose. The reason that humidifiers are a business is because low humidity can be uncomfortable.

Discomfort due to dry air is a major problem in airplanes. You may already have experienced it.

One of the main reasons why they recirculate some air instead of making it an open circuit is to conserve moisture. Outside air at high altitude is extremely dry. Moisturizers could be used but that would require heavy and therefore expensive water tanks.

To me the most noticeable problem is dry eyes, which makes me feel like I'm exhausted and falling asleep, even if I've had a good night's sleep. Before we got humidifiers it started the minute I walked into the office.

Also occasional nosebleeds.

If you have sensitive or dry skin, or something like eczema, it can (usually over long periods of time) cause some pretty severe issues if you don’t have enough humidity.

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