Home humidifier? Pros? Cons? Worth it??

[Nix]

Because of all the great info I was reading about the air duct cleaning thread I thought I would ask you folks about a home humidifier.

Does anyone have or know of someone that has a Humidifier installed in their house that works with the heating/cooling system?

I have super dry skin as it is, bad enough where shortly after it starts to get as cold as it has been getting my hands periodically crack and bleed. With the combination of shitty dry skin, manual labor working with my hands and mother nature. But it gets bad enough when they crack open it gets very painful. The cracks have a very hard time healing. Over the years I've used super glue to close up the cracks. Simply because bands aids and all that other junk doesn't cut it. I'm only 33 but over the years my hands have gotten worse. Hand cream and all the other stuff can only do so much so I'm looking for other remedies that may help.

Anyhow, It has been brought up to me about a humidifier for the whole house. But I don't personally know of anyone that has one. I'd simply like to hear some opinions. Pros/Cons, Is it expensive, expensive and tough to maintain etc.... For what it's worth we have a ranch style house that is approximately 1, 700 square feet. In the next year or two we plan on finishing a portion of the basement so I suppose that should be factored into the equation.

Thanks