This is just a general note for those of you that may be considering heating your homes with wood. Having a fire or heat provided by wood dries the air out, and the humidity in your homes will drop well below a comfort zone. When it drops in my home, my skin itches something terrible, and no amount of lotion will fix the problem. So, you may want to get a tea kettle to sit upon your woodstove or fireplace insert. I keep mine filled with water and it restores some of the humidity back into the air. Not as good as a humidifier, but it will help some.

-- (UseToBe@Regular.Here), December 12, 1999

Answers

The converse of this is also true. In the summer without accustomed air conditioning, many places will become "unlivably" humid and hot. This will not only impact our sweat glands, but the longevity of some stored supplies if we are not careful. We are rather spoiled by our climate control. The old timers with the root cellars and natural ventillation did have some good ideas

-- tree (thetrees@bigfoot.com), December 12, 1999.

Another means of adding moisture to the air is simply hang the laundry inside.

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), December 12, 1999.

A nice thing about having a tea kettle or 2 on the stove at all times is that you then don't need to worry about the water heater working. We lived for 12 years (with 3 boys, 2 of whom were born during the first few of those 12 years) heating our water on the wood stove whenever it was going, and no regular water heater.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), December 12, 1999.