Do Humidifiers Warm The Air? Yes!

Does a humidifier make a room warmer?

I can imagine why a person would ask such a question. Most of the time, we crank up our humidifiers during the winter.

Therefore, warmth is always on our minds during the winter. So, for every appliance that we run, we ask whether it can make the air warmer.

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There is a perfectly good reason for that, too. In winter, we turn on the heating, which in turn dries out the air as it warms it up.

Thus, if you have been asking what you need between a humidifier and a dehumidifier in winter, now you know the answer. You need to increase the indoor humidity.

So, does a humidifier make a room warmer? If you run a warm mist humidifier, it can make the air feel warm since it releases warm mist. A cool mist humidifier will make a room feel a little warmer, but it will take time. With the heating running, increasing humidity might help the air hold warmth longer. Also, when there is high humidity, the air seems to get warmer. 

At room temperature, you will feel warm if the humidity level is right or higher. At the same time, if the room is cold, and you run a humidifier, the air will feel colder.

How a humidifier increases warmth slightly

Every appliance that uses electricity will generate some heat. However, some appliances generate more heat than others.

In the case of a humidifier, it generates a very small amount of heat, so you might not feel the difference.

But, as already suggested, at room temperature, a humidifier can make you feel warmer than when you do not run it.

So yes, a humidifier might indeed make a room feel a bit warmer, but just a bit.

We could also look at this from another angle. A humidifier increases the humidity in a room. Humidity is related to heat.

Thus, if the room is hot, increasing the level of humidity might increase the heat in the room.

It is a well-known fact that having more moisture in the air retains heat. But this is the heat that was already in the room. It has something to do with thermal expansion.

The best humidifier to increase moisture in the room

When asking, does a humidifier make a room warmer? Perhaps we should ask what type of humidifier warms the room.

All we are asking is: between a warm mist and a cool mist humidifier, which can warm the room?

What warms the air between warm and cool mist humidifiers?

Both of them can warm the air in your room.

However, a warm mist humidifier does it faster since the mist coming from it is already warm.

Therefore, if you are looking for a humidifier to primarily add moisture to the room and secondarily make the room warmer, you are better off going for the warm mist one.

But …

This does not mean that a cool mist humidifier cannot make a room warmer. Indeed, it can! But the mechanics are a bit different.

Just how do you feel warmer when your cool mist humidifier releases cool mist? Your body reacts to the cool mist by retaining its warmth and not losing it to its surroundings.

Therefore, you end up feeling warmer!

The motor in a humidifier will make a room warmer

This is another factor that most people forget. Any electrical appliance generates heat. Therefore, if you keep a portable humidifier on your desk, you will experience more warmth.

On this note, a warm mist humidifier generates more heat than a cool mist one. Once again, this happens because it has a heating element that gets hot enough to boil the water to produce mist.

Image of Do humidifiers cool down a room

In the case of a cool mist humidifier, it has a wick, which absorbs the water, and then a fan whips it out of the humidifier as mist. Thus, while it will eventually retain warmth in the room because of increased humidity, it is slower.

Do humidifiers cool down a room?

Yes, it will, but the question is: for how long will the air remain cool? By releasing cool mist into a hot and dry room, the humidifier will make the air in your house cooler.

But they make it warmer than cool, considering that the increase in humidity retains warmth.

Conclusion

Do humidifiers make a room warmer?

They do, as you have seen here. But for the cool mist humidifier, it depends on what the room temperature is.

Does this mean that you won’t need heating in winter? You definitely will!

If the temperature in the room is too low, the ultrasonic or evaporative humidifier will not make the room warm enough.

Tip: If you run a humidifier frequently, you are better off keeping ultrasonic humidifiers because they cause humidifier white dust.