I have a pan of water on my coal stove, but that didn’t work.
When you live in the mountains of the great Northeast, winters can be brutal. If it rains instead of snow, you end up with an inch or more of ice all over the property. I had to go away for a couple days, and I nearly broke my car’s suspension system as my car dropped into the ruts in the ice. The worst part of the cold winters is keeping the house warm. My furnace does a great job of keeping the house warm, but it also dries out the air. Most people in my area have a furnace, but most of them also have a fireplace. When you get such cold and blizzardy weather, you often have periods of no electricity. The ice lays heavy on the power lines and it causes them to break. You need to have a fireplace, or some other type of heating that doesn’t require electricity. I have a small coal stove in the living room. This helps to keep my house warm and to keep the pipes from freezing. Unfortunately, the heating system also dries out my home. I end up with frizzy hair, static carpeting, and the wood dries out. I can deal with all of this, but the nose bleeds are the worst. I have a pan of water on my coal stove, but that didn’t work. I ended up purchasing a humidifier for my house. I have a whole house humidifier that is connected to my furnace. This doesn’t help when the furnace isn’t working. I now have humidification for my entire house, regardless of the heating source I am using.