Aprilaire 600 humidity output

[trader_4]

. If you connect the humdifier directly to the blower motor, the humidifer will be fed with different voltages when the blower operates at different s peeds.

idifer. A not so bad way to deal with it is to connect the humidifier to t he HIGH speed tap. Then the humidifier will see full line voltage when the blower is on high and it will see LOWER line voltage when the blower is on low. This is not too bad usually. The worst thing you can do is connect the humidifer to a low speed tap. Then the voltage to the humdifier may g et above 120 when the blower is on high speed, which can be very bad for th e humidifer.

and use a meter to check the voltage at the humidifer over all modes of ope ration.

I don't know about your furnace or blower. But mine and I think most moder n ones of the type we're talking about, the AC comes into the main furnace control board on a pair of wires that gets connected to the house 120V AC. The ECM blower motor is driven by a wiring harness connected between the bl ower motor and that main control board. Between the incoming AC and the ECM blower is the guts of the control board including CPU and power control electonics to drive the ECM motor. IDK how exactly one figures out what is going on in there and simply taps into a PC board. And even if you do, what's there surely isn't just 120V, because the controller can make the motor spin at whatever continously variable speed it wants and can somehow even sense the load on the motor to gauge the airflow.

If it's done the way you say, I'd like to see an example of an install manual for a humidifier that says so.

[Don Wiss]

Several installation manuals are listed here:

They require signing up at the site to read. I didn't do that. The "Full Download" is the biggest file.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Of course. If and when some times you need extra humidity in the house now you have to run the heating mode to activate the humidifier which is not ideal. I always hooked up the humidifier to run when blower runs. When I installed Aprilaire kit, it contained humidistat, small 24V AC transformer, outdoor temperature sensor to automate the humidity level. I did not use this sensor. Before this unit I used Lennox spray nozzle type. Next time I want to try steam generating type. It is getting cold again here with snow coming down.

[TimR]

There are two separate problems here.

The humidifier may or may not be keeping the house at the designed humidity .

Some humans in the house have symptoms or discomfort that may or may not be related to low humidity.

If there is condensation on the windows, normally that means the humidity i s too high. If that condensation is liquid (a slight haze up to actual dri ps) then there is no question. That level of humidity is dangerously high. It can lead to mold growth which can lead to respiratory systems in sensi tive people.

If that condensation is beautiful frost crystals, there is some chance humi dity is not too high, but the window is too cold. That's bad too because y ou're wasting energy, but the humidity might not be too high. There is sti ll almost no chance the humidity is too low, IMO.

How tight the house is makes a difference, too. By tight, I mean how much outside air sneaks in. That outside air is cold, so it can't hold a lot of moisture. When it warms up, it can hold more, so the air is relatively dr y. Houses in the US are usually not very tight. When we lived in Germany our house was very tight and had to be ventilated by opening windows daily even in winter.

[trader_4]

Maybe even more issues, but I'm not sure there is any real problem.

HK finally reported that the actual humidity he's measuring in the house is 45 - 50%. So, apparently the humidifier is working.

be related to low humidity.

is too high. If that condensation is liquid (a slight haze up to actual d rips) then there is no question. That level of humidity is dangerously hig h. It can lead to mold growth which can lead to respiratory systems in sen sitive people.

I mostly agree. I think some small amount of condensation at few windows may still be OK. But if there is condensation, water on a lot of windows, then the humidity is too high. I think 45% is the max you typically want when it's ~35 outside, less as the temperature goes down. Which is why the better models come with the outdoor temp sensor, to automatically compensate, but apparently some people don't want that.

midity is not too high, but the window is too cold. That's bad too because you're wasting energy, but the humidity might not be too high. There is s till almost no chance the humidity is too low, IMO.

I think HK's biggest problem was that instead of measuring the humidity by placing the hygrometer at some typical locations inside the house, he was placing it at the heat register, giving a false reading.

h outside air sneaks in. That outside air is cold, so it can't hold a lot of moisture. When it warms up, it can hold more, so the air is relatively dry. Houses in the US are usually not very tight. When we lived in German y our house was very tight and had to be ventilated by opening windows dail y even in winter.

Agree.

[Hongyi Kang]

I currently see condensation mainly just on the bathroom and kitchen window s. And Trader, when I mentioned 45% to 50%, I also said it was because the weather became warmer, not because the hunidifier was behaving differently . Now the outdoor temperature has decreased again, the humidity dropped ag ain to between 35% and 40%.

[N8N]

. If you connect the humdifier directly to the blower motor, the humidifer will be fed with different voltages when the blower operates at different s peeds.

idifer. A not so bad way to deal with it is to connect the humidifier to t he HIGH speed tap. Then the humidifier will see full line voltage when the blower is on high and it will see LOWER line voltage when the blower is on low. This is not too bad usually. The worst thing you can do is connect the humidifer to a low speed tap. Then the voltage to the humdifier may g et above 120 when the blower is on high speed, which can be very bad for th e humidifer.

and use a meter to check the voltage at the humidifer over all modes of ope ration.

ransformer which transforms 120V to 24V I suppose, and can be used to conne ct the blower power to the humidifier. I might be able to ask the contract or that?

Some humidifiers are powered by 120VAC and some are powered by 24VAC. Some furnace control boards have a "humidifier" terminal that outputs 120VAC an d some output 24VAC. Some do not have a "humidifier" terminal at all.

In any case, a relay or two should fix you up if you have a mismatch betwee n your boards and your humidifier. But I would assume if this was professi onally installed, that everything is reasonably copacetic. (NB: not always ... e.g. I had to rework the humidifier installation at my old place where the humidifier was installed before the AC unit, so it was wired into the " EAC" not the "HUM" terminal. So the humidifier could run when the AC was o n, or the fan was manually turned on by the new thermostat. Old heat only stat was a honeywell round mercury thing with no separate fan terminal so e ither would have worked in the original configuration. Easy fix though.)

Have you had a chance to let your hygrometer sit in the middle of a room lo ng enough for it to stabilize? What was the reading?

[N8N]

:

ns. If you connect the humdifier directly to the blower motor, the humidife r will be fed with different voltages when the blower operates at different speeds.

p and use a meter to check the voltage at the humidifer over all modes of o peration.

few days it had been warmer, the humidity had been aroun 45%-50%.

That should be fine then, that's typically your target humidity. Too much lower and you can feel the effects of the dryness; too much higher and you' re risking mold growth etc. and also possible damage from condensation. If it's really cold outside you may get condensation on your windows even at

40-45% RH inside, so you may have to drop back a little in really cold weat her.

nate

[trader_4]

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ions. If you connect the humdifier directly to the blower motor, the humidi fer will be fed with different voltages when the blower operates at differe nt speeds.

tap and use a meter to check the voltage at the humidifer over all modes of operation.

a few days it had been warmer, the humidity had been aroun 45%-50%.

h lower and you can feel the effects of the dryness; too much higher and yo u're risking mold growth etc. and also possible damage from condensation. If it's really cold outside you may get condensation on your windows even a t 40-45% RH inside, so you may have to drop back a little in really cold we ather.

Which is why the models with an outdoor temp sensor that automatically redu ces the target humidity level as the temp drops are a good idea. You don't hav e to remember and fiddle with the setting when temps swing around in winter.

[harsimranbansal]

ain! Unfortunately I'm Chinese but I always wished I could understand Kore an :D

air flow from supply to the humidifier(the one that I could control with th e horizontal/vertical switch), then yes I did double check and make sure it was fully on. I've also tried different water flow from the hot water sup ply, from minimum to maximum, humidity output did not change. The humidity monitor I was using was AcuRite 00613A1 Indoor Humidity Monitor. Bought f rom Amazon, not sure if it's okay to post links here so I'll just skip that for now. Anyways for the two years since I had it its performance had bee n satisfactory for me, it was able to sense humidity changes and never fluc tuated when in a stable environment.

have was 16%, therefore the hot air I was measuring probably was even lower than 16%, this is the main thing I was concerned about, and also why I thi nk I might be >experiencing something different from other people who has t he same unit.

ing much higher than 16% sounds reasonable, but I'm not sure if this hot/co ld air difference will be able to account for the difference between the 45 % and 16%. The humidifier should not sense the outside temperature because when I had it installed I specifically asked for them to not put in the au tomatic one, but the manual one instead. So the humidistat on the return d uct is just a round knob pointing to different numbers, no digital display.

of register is reasonable or not, if it is, I probably shouldn't even both er getting the service guy back in again. But if it's not, I'm thinking wh ether there are other hardware configuration problems involved that they co uld make improvements on.

r. That is why in the winter the inside of your house is so dry to begin w ith - it may be 80% RH outside at 20 degrees but (let me google for a real number) that same mass of air heated to 65 degrees will be around 15% RH wi thout having any change in water content.

but in fact as far away from them as possible, as the air coming out of the supply duct will be warmer than the ambient temperature of the house.

r than your target of 40-45% due to the temperature difference.

Hi Nate!

You posted this website "

" in the past, and i am trying to log onto this. I cannot access this website. Is it possible to speak with you regarding theoretical RH at given temperatures?

I need some help.

thanks

Sim

[rubenkida]

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I have been having a similar issue with less than optimal performance from my bypass humidifier. On my internet search, I discovered (insert head donk here), that the HUMIDIFIER ONLY WORKS WHEN THE BLOWER IS RUNNING.

It will take a day or two to confirm this is the solution, but I've put my multi-stage Carrier furnace fan into the CIRCULATE position and have every confidence that I will see an improvement in the humidity level as a result.

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[trader_4]

Of course the humidifier can only run when the blower is running. Some are wired so that they only run when the furnace is firing and the blower is running. If the humidifier is using cold water, you could switch it to hot water to increase the evaporation. Does this have an outside temp sensor that backs off the humidity as the outside temp drops? Reasonably well sealed house or old farm house blowing wind? I've yet to see a house that couldn't maintain reasonable humidity with the unit only running when the furnace is firing.