The Unlikely Air Humidifier

As some of you may have noticed, I have been out of action for over a week. It’s been a tough couple of weeks. The lack of sleep and harsh weather hasn’t been kind to my body, resulting in less than optimal health over the past few days.

Particularly, the cold dry air has been quite the throat irritant, making usually effortless things like falling asleep and staying alseep exceptionally challenging.

What I needed was a way to add a little humidity to the air.

The wifey pulled out the usual suspects – bucket of water by the bed, wet towel, etc. But I just wasn’t content. Over and over, I’d flip through my mental store of random and miscallaneous facts that I habitually stow away – it’s kind of a poor man’s lottery, with all the excitement of one of them finally striking it useful, and none of the monetary stress.

So in that instance, I was thinking to myself – “Hey, this device/appliance could make a pretty decent air humidifier”. I just couldn’t put a finger. Iterating through the half-dozen or so domestic appliances we have littered throughout our place, I finally arrived at it.

The evaporative cooler!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how an evaporative cooler works, here’s a quick lowdown. An evaporative cooler is essentially a big fan with a mini waterfall behind it. As air is sucked through through the “waterfall” by the fan, the water absorbs heat from the air, resulting in cooler air coming out the front, which is great for summertime, but for a dry winter’s night?

It doesn’t really make sense, until you realize two things – firstly, running a fan in winter is silly, but if the air is colder than the water in the device, the cooling effect it negligible (to be safe, you could use warm water). Secondly and more importantly, as the dry air flows through the device, it soaks up the waterfall like a dry crusty sponge.

The end product? Greater humidity in the room, and a better night’s sleep for me.