Humidifier recommendation for furnace.

[Joe]

What is the best humidifier I can buy for my furnace that will cover a 2750 square foot ranch house? Thank you all for your recommendations.

[TimS]

I wired up 1 of these

 for a friend. It's a home steam generator, comes with a flow switch to sense the HVAC fan, diagnostics, dumps when water gets bad. Nice machine.

[Brad]

My recommendation is to not have one at all. I would never put one in my house.

[William Morris]

[Jimmy]

And your HVAC qualifications are ?

[m Ransley]

April Air has a unit that monitors outside temperature and keeps humidity at the optimal point you set, Set it once to when you get condensation, back it off and thats it, its set. Steam units waist electricity and can be bad for duct work, - rusting.

[HeatMan]

I'll argue that one with you.

Honeywell makes an excellant one. It costs 3 time the Aprilair units, though.

[m Ransley]

I wasnt aware the honywell adjusted humidity automaticly, but at 3 x the cost maybe that is why my instaler didnt recomend it. The April Air was plenty expensive.

[CBhvac]

Honeywell, or Aprilaire.

The ones we sell are Aprilaire...York rebadges the Aprilaire models for us if we are doing a high end system and want the fancy labels to match...but they work and when sized to the system, with a humidistat, work well.

[CBhvac]

Please explain why, and while you are at it, list your qualifications in the industry to make a statement that is such a blanket one.

Some homes...like log cabins, REQUIRE one....or two....or three...

[Greg O]

Me too. I would rather have my hardwood floors shrink, and the joints loosen up on my wood furniture. Not to mention the scratchy throat in the morning that I enjoy so much! (Sarcasim off!) Greg

[wayne]

it depends upon your water. But I would recommend one that has a drip pad and no standing water!

Wayne

[xymergy]

You must not live where real winters take place. Life for 5 months at

30F or colder really gets dry when warmed by forced air heat.

[alt-hvac Moderated]

My boss and I installed Aprilaire 600 units for the three years I was working with him. They were dependable, and a good design.

[George Wenzel]

Actually, it doesn't matter what type of heating is used. Air that is warmed from below freezing temperatures up to room temperature will always dry out.

If it's -20C outside (around zero degrees Fahrenheit for you yanks), and

80% relative humidity, that air, when warmed to +20C (room temperature), will drop to around 15-20% relative humidity. Humidity measurements are always relative to the temperature.

When people say that their furnace "dries the air out", it's not the fact that it's a forced-air system that is trying out the air. It's simply the fact that the temperature of the air is being raised. Systems with hot-water heating will also end up with dry air if humidity isn't added via a humidifier.

Regards,

George Wenzel

[HeatMan]

I may have missed something, but the HW doesn't adjust automatically. I does get the humidity in the house correctly.

My AA 550 runs all the time to try to get the house to 50% RH, and that is using hot water across the panel.

[m Ransley]

I guess I missed it , my mistake, the HW at 3 x the price i thought would have that feature. Then why is it so costly and so good.