A humidifier is a piece of equipment that is used to add moisture to the air that is contained within one room of a house or the complete house itself. A humidifier is of great use to a person who suffers from nasal or chest congestion when down with the flu or a common viral infection that is passing around. The moisture that is added to the air moistens the skin in the nasal passages, making it easier for you to breathe. Humidifiers are of two types, namely the warm mist humidifiers and the cool mist humidifiers. Both these pieces of apparatus serve the same purpose, but work in different ways. A warm mist humidifier will first vaporize water and then release it into the air. A cool mist humidifier releases water drops into the air with the help of a disc that rotates at a high speed.
Although purchasing a humidifier from the local store seems to be the easiest method of humidifying the air in your home, it may not always be the most conventional, because humidifiers are rather expensive. The best way to make a warm mist humidifier is by allowing hot water to run into a bath and leaving the washroom door open. Since the water vapor is warm, it is lighter than the cold air present in the house. The water vapor will move through the house and humidify the air, based on the same principle of working as a warm mist humidifier. A cold mist humidifier could be made by placing a bucket of ice under a fan. The breeze produced by the fan will cause very fine droplets of water to spread through the air present in the room, thereby humidifying the whole room based on the working principle of a cool mist humidifier. Placing a wet towel over an air conditioning vent will have a similar effect. Placing wet towels and wet bed sheets over open windows is another effective method of humidifying the room that contains mostly dry air.
Humidifiers are not only used to moisten the air in enclosed rooms, but are also used by a number of professional musicians in the cases of their musical instruments. This is done to keep the wood of the respective instrument from going dry. Since these humidifiers need to be convenient to be placed inside a case, they are normally made by placing a wet sponge inside a plastic bag casement, before being placed into the case of the musical instrument. The sponge contains the moisture to humidify the air and the plastic casement prevents water from destroying the musical instrument.
answered by M W