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Now that the weather is actually starting to become a bit wintery again we're having to fire up the heater more. And (in addition to the ridiculous gas bill that goes along with it) I can't stand the way it makes me feel.

Am I warm? Sure. Does it heat up the house quickly? Yep. Is my skin so dry it's flaking off by the pound? You betcha.

Despite the fact that I've setup 3 different humidifiers around the house (one in the den, one in Laney's room and one in our bedroom) it doesn't appear to make much of a difference. It's amazing how quick the heat sucks the moisture out of a room. I have the humidifier in Laney's room set to keep the humidity at 55% (a bit high, but for a reason.) Within 3 minutes of the heat kicking on in her room the humidity instantly drops down to 45%. And the usual heating cycle runs anywhere from 6-10 minutes. By the time the heat cuts off her humidifier barely has time to replenish the room with moisture again before the next heating cycle comes on and we're back to square one.

And Laney has the best humidifier in the house. It's a warm mist unit that can humidify the room more rapidly (and much more quietly) than our cool mist models. I'm definitely considering getting a couple more even though the cleaning and maintenance on them is more demanding. I'd briefly considered a whole-house unit that you can tie directly into the ducts, but heard too many horror stories about mold and other issues from HVAC techs.

Given the sensitivity of my sinuses and the fact that I'm not accustomed to using lotion, this is yet another reason why I'm not a big fan of winter. Humidity can definitely suck the energy out of you in the hot southern summer. But humidity is something I've grown accustomed to. I'll take that over this any day.