Use an ultrasonic humidifier. Place a skirt under it to catch the mineral deposits from the mist. You need moisture around you not in the whole house. Whole house humidity can cause condensation leading to mold and wood rot. Better still have a lot of house plants. They respire and put moisture into the air as well as supply oxygen. Water them sparingly. If the plants thrive so will you. The other advantages of house plants will be self evident when you have them.
Furnace mounted forced air drum type and hallway drum type humidifiers are more of a hassle than a help. The foam elements clog up with mineral deposits very quickly and are hard to remove. Replacement foam elements cost an arm and a leg. However my main objection is that slime molds and mico-organisms find the wet tepid water an ideal culture medium in which to propogate. If you ever have one or can take a look at one you will find the water tray full of slimy strands and films. They produce spores. The spore get blown into the air with the furnace air. You have a health problem.
Three weeks ago I replaced my old, natural draft furnace.
Using my friend/HVAC perfectionist's suppliers, we installed the system with my obligation being only his costs. He and I go back >40-years, he was a groomsman at my wedding >32-years ago. I have seen the actual invoices.
Of course, that does not account for the relatively minor bill from the sheet metal supply house, the fancy, right angle pleated filter housing and sundry supplies. Nor does it account for the adult beverages and fuel for hauling my friend around. I am quite pleased with the job. It was a VERY valuable learning experience for me. I might even be able to do it MYSELF again - in my next life! HA!
Two questions. What is the payback on a furnace replacement? How many years do you need to run the furnace to save in fuel the expense used to pay for the replacement.
The second question is what is the technical explanation for the newer furnaces to claim that it is more efficient than the older models?
A home furnace is simply a heat exchanger extracting heat from a flame. The BTU output for a particular flame is a finite qualtity. The increase in efficiency can only come only from the heat extraction process. If the heat exchanger is built like a car radiator in having lots of surface area then yes, there will be greater efficiency. But the heat exchanger functions in a pretty hostile environment. A delicate car radiator like device won't last too long in a furnace. So the heat exchanger is built of crude cast iron and there are only so many things you can do with this material. I can't picture any significant design advance between the old and the new heat exchanger elements. If you know of another explanation I am ingterested.
First, the price sounds high. I'm in western NYS, and my boss gets about two grand for a 80% furnace, and not much more for the humidifier.
Like folks say, the humidifier doesn't add much work when done at the same time. And the 90% furnace is an excellent idea.
I live in NY state. When it's winter, and there is snow on the ground, there is a definite need for humidity in houses. And in summer, there is a definite need for dehumidifying.
Hi, Cast iron exchanger? Mine does not looks like rusty cast iron! It looks shiny. And there are high efficiency furnaces with efficiency of >90% which waste LOT less gas. Pay back period is important but as a good citizen aren't you interested in contributing to energy conservation and less pollution? And non-renewable energy source like NG and dino-juice price can only go up in coming years. I and my family are trying to do our part to help strained mother earth. How about you and yours? Also my government gives rebate when we do things to conserve energy. Of course they don't foot the whole bill but at least they help out. When I replaced my toilet with a low water consumption model, city gave me 75.00. For furnace upgrade it can be ~1000.00 depending what is done.
I just came from a friend's new home in Lethbridge and took a look at his new furnace (900 sq ft home). Its less than half the size of mine and has electronic ignition. The burners look simple enough but I couldn't see the heat exchanger. I'll probably visit the local gas company someday to see the latest technology. That said I can say for sure that there is nothing complicated in his furnace layout that would suggest any breakthroughs in heat extraction technology. There is only so much heat a heat exchanger can absorb (rate of absorbtion) at any given time. Like him I set my winter temp at 17 deg C. The odd thing is that I felt a lot colder in his house. My best explanation is that his small furnace has a much smaller blower motor and fan
[For an air standard engine with g = 1.4 , compression ratio rC = 15 and expansion ratio rE = 5, this gives an ideal diesel efficiency of
56%.
formatting link
(A gasoline engine is something like 40 percent. ) For a free burning furnace flame most of the burnt hot air goes up the stack (feel how hot the exhaust stack is) the efficiency is in the ~30 per cent range, not > 90 percent.]
But from
formatting link
[Efficiency: Modern natural gas furnaces achieve operating efficiencies as high as
96 or 97 percent AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiencies) and thus give the homeowner 96 cents worth of heat into the living area for each dollar of gas purchased. The minimum efficiency standard for furnaces sold in the U.S. is 78 percent. While the typical furnaces of years past used chimneys, the high efficiency units of today extract so much heat from the gas they use that they can be vented through the sidewall of your home using plastic pipe. This venting is similar to the type of venting associated with a clothes dryer.
Pilot lights, which were used in older equipment, have been replaced with spark ignition systems to save energy. ]
I am suspicious as to how this >90% efficiency is calculated as it would mean that the stack plenum temperature at the furnace should be close to ambient temperature, a practical impossibility. It didn't occur to me to see the exhaust stack but it looked like the regular galvanized steel. I would never accept plastic pipe (above article) for this installation anyway.
You are referring to Tony. Me? I don't own a vehicle anymore. Just the trusty bicycle for getting around, by bus for longer distances or a rental when needed.
90% efficiency is calculated as it would mean that the stack plenum temperature at the furnace should be close to ambient temperature, a practical impossibility. It didn't occur to me to see the exhaust stack but it looked like the regular galvanized steel. I would never accept plastic pipe (above article) for this installation anyway. >
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.