Wood heat: allergies and/or symptoms of dry air?

[quinn]

My wife has been experiencing allergy symptoms: plugged nose, sometimes runny nose, that started in September (around the time we started burning). She has also been sick much more frequently this winter than she has in the past (we just married last summer and this is her first full winter in our wood heated home).

I am curious if any of you, or your family, experience these symptoms during the burning season.

 

[cogger]

Typical but not always the cause. The dryness can attribute to illness not necessarily cause it. Run a pot of water on your stove top Especially true when low humidity outdoors. Also she may want to try and sleep near a humidifier.

 

[Bobbin]

Nope. No allergies (at least not yet!) to anything. We haven't tried to humidify the air in the house but I'd like to next season.

We keep our superior immune systems in tip-top shape with a carefully maintained level of household dust and grime, 3 cats, and a large dog!

 

[Rich_CT]

My son has some bad allergies. He had issues when we used the open fireplace. No problems now that we have an insert. We do keep a pot of water on the insert and run a humidifier in his room over night.

Rich

 

[burntime]

Allergies with wood burning...yep, there bad. A general uneasiness when you see wood not cut and split. An unquenched need to stack and scrounge wood. A unsatiable need to tell your friends your last gas/oil/proPAIN bill was 0 :~)

 

[wendell]

How long are you leaving the wood in your house? I would be more inclined to believe it has something to do with mold or fungus than the actually burning. Being too dry definitely also contributes as it doesn't allow the body's immune system to work properly.

 

[gzecc]

If your indoor humidity is < 30% you will dry out your upper respiratory system over time. This will eventually cause upper repiratory problems for a lot of people. Buy a hygrometer (meter that monitors humidity). Then buy a room humidifier and run it when you see your humidity falling. I run mine constantly when the insert is on. We leave ours near the bedrooms.
Indoor humidity should be around 45%. Above 50% (for extended periods) could cause mold growth.

 

[Highbeam]

To add to gzecc, when the RH runs up above 50% your dust mite population will thrive. That's bad mojo and a very common allergy as well.

The stove room will be warmer and so lower in humidity that the rest of the room. For us, the stoveroom is around 20% RH and 75 degrees and the bedrooms are at about 50% RH and 65 degrees. If I dumped water into the stoveroom to raise the humidity there then the bedrooms would become too wet. So just be aware that the RH will vary throughout the house. I have concluded that being too dry is better than being too wet.

 

[North of 60]

We used to get as low as 18 to 20% during the latter part of winter in the house. The sinuses would become quite irritated. Having an OA Kit on the newest stove made a big difference for the humidifier to maintain the 30%+ that makes our sleeps comfortable.

 

[Prada]

Once in awhile I get kind of sneezy and water eyed and we figured out that it was the split firewood that was sitting in the house waiting to be burnt. We still keep quite a bit of it in here because it seems it's just 'some' of it that makes me do that and not all the time or anything.
She just might have an allergy to a certain type of wood that has been carried in. Of course old moldy wood could be doing that too. It might be smart to have some allergy tests run.

 

[quinn]

We keep our wood for the week out on the porch and only bring in an arm load at a time so I doubt mold is an issue. I have no idea what the relative humidity is in our home. We live in a dry climate as it is so I imagine it is pretty low. Also, we just finished doing some allergy testing to foods and cats and our next step is to test for dust and mold. A buddy of mine was telling me that they keep a very large canning pot - you know the ones that are like 2 feet in diameter - on their stove and that they fill it twice a day and still the humidity in their place sits at 15%. They just bought a humidifier. I'll check the humidity and see where we sit. Thanks for the feedback folks.

 

[rickw]

Also be sure to open up your air prior to opening the door, and open the door slowly. Just opening the door on a very low fire is a good way to puff out some smoke.

 

[Highbeam]

The general consensus is that steaming anything on top of the stove will not be adequate for adding humidity to your home. They're decorations.

A humidifier is relatively cheap to buy and run as well as effective.

 

[Jfk4th]

We keep our wood for the week out on the porch and only bring in an arm load at a time so I doubt mold is an issue. I have no idea what the relative humidity is in our home. We live in a dry climate as it is so I imagine it is pretty low. Also, we just finished doing some allergy testing to foods and cats and our next step is to test for dust and mold. A buddy of mine was telling me that they keep a very large canning pot - you know the ones that are like 2 feet in diameter - on their stove and that they fill it twice a day and still the humidity in their place sits at 15%. They just bought a humidifier. I'll check the humidity and see where we sit. Thanks for the feedback folks.

I bought a nice SEARS 12 gallon humidifier 2 months ago, our humidity went from about 15% to 45%, you notice the difference in a couple of days. I will never go without a humidifier again. I bought the one rated to 2400 sq ft, bigger is better in my book. I also bought three cheap walmart humidity thermo to put around the house, again around 40-45% which is nice....No more dry noses or throats, no headaches...worht every penny. I think I paid about 140 dollars. After a hell of a lot of rasearch the one from sears

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...ppliances&cName=Air+Purifiers+&+Dehumidifiers
139 dollars (4 speed modes, most of the time you will run this on whisper quiet....)

I also bought an HEPA air purifier, makes a difference too for smoke from stove, allergies
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...Purifiers+&+Dehumidifiers&sName=Air+Purifiers

on sale now for 99 dollars (which means for me I take my receipt to sears and since it is less than 30 days since I bought mine I get 40 dollars back..sweet)

Again, I did way too much research on both of these and I am confident for the money there are none better

 

[quinn]

Hey JFK,

Thank you. I just had a read through about these units and I'll run it by my wife and I am pretty sure we will get one of the humidifiers and 2 of the HEPA cleaners. From what other users have said, they sound like excellent units. With three cats and two wood stoves in a house over 100 years old and a dry climate, I think it will help us out. Again, thanks for you feedback.

 

[Jfk4th]

Hey JFK,

Thank you. I just had a read through about these units and I'll run it by my wife and I am pretty sure we will get one of the humidifiers and 2 of the HEPA cleaners. From what other users have said, they sound like excellent units. With three cats and two wood stoves in a house over 100 years old and a dry climate, I think it will help us out. Again, thanks for you feedback.

Anytime

 

[oconnor]

My allergies were bad at the start of the season until I changed my reloading habits. Now I let the fire burn to coals before I open the door to reduce any smoke spillage, and as mentioned above, if I do need to open during the burn, I open the air to get the fire raging before I open the door - makes for better draft hence less smoke into the room.