Whole-home humidifiers in Burke.

Burke is the rare town where electric heat edges out gas among owners, about 51 percent to 48. That is almost a coin toss on your street. Gas furnace houses take a bypass Aprilaire. The heat pump houses take the fan-powered kind. We open the cover before choosing, because the two of them look alike from the basement stairs.

Most of Burke came in the 1970s and 80s, and nearly half the homes date from 1980 to 1999. Those houses are tighter than the 1960s ramblers in Annandale, so they hold moisture better. A mid-size unit is usually plenty, and cranking it hurts more than it helps once the glass starts to run.

Burke Centre is a planned community of the Commons, the Landings, the Oaks, the Ponds and the Woods, mostly in clustered townhouses. Many have a furnace or air handler in a hall closet or a small utility room off the kitchen. The humidifier fits there, but the drain line is the sticking point, so we find a route for it before quoting. Behind the closet door there is often just enough wall for a thin water line and a drain hose, and not much more, so measuring matters.

A humidifier lives entirely inside the house, so nothing about it shows from the street. If your community’s rules cover outdoor equipment, a humidifier isn’t part of that. Still, a quick look at your own paperwork costs nothing and settles it.