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?



—
Ice5891

12 comments

  1. Buy a humidifier, when it gets very cold the air become very dry :/

  2. The only way I found to combat this is to get a humidifier. Doesn’t really matter what type.

  3. 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

  4. 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).

  6. 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.

  7. Get a humidifier with hygrometer. If it doesn’t help get another. Vaporising / evaporative ones are easy to maintain, ultrasonic ones are not.

  8. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

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