One of our upstairs bedrooms is very, very dry. We had a whole-house humidification unit installed on our HVAC and also run a vaporizer unit in the room. Has not solved the problem. Any ideas of what the problem is? Is the vapor being absorbed by the hardwood floor? Being lost some other way? Thanks.

A vaporizer in the room didn't help!!

How dry is DRY? If you're just going on how it feels or how scratchy your throat is, you might be judging things the wrong way. Remember, allergies can cause those same symptoms.

Have you put a humidity gauge (forgot the technical term) in the room to determine what the moisture percentage is? You need a number to use as a baseline, only then can you tell how effective a modification has been.

We do use a humidity gauge and it is reading levels that are proper -- 40%-50%. But we still wake up dehydrated each morning.

I guess, just to be sure, you could buy a second humidity gauge made by a different company to see if the readings are the same. Some other possible reasons for the dryness might be allergies (i.e. seasonal, mold, dust), breathing through your mouths while sleeping (my situation), a heating duct blowing directly on your bed or in that general direction. Also, if your heads are positioned right near a window when sleeping a draft or just the temperature difference due to heat loss can be enough to cause problems. As you can probably tell I have sinus problems and have gone through similar situations.

Explore all the possibilities. If the vaporizer in addition to a normal gauge reading is not solving the problem, I would have to assume that moisture, or lack thereof, is not the cause of your problem. I wish you the best of luck.

If you have a 40% humidity and still feel scratchy or dehydarted it is a medical issue and not air quality. 40% in most climates will start to condense on the walls and rot clothing and bedding.