Qustions about humidifier???

[Jim]

I have a small cool-mist humidifier, but I can't figure out if it is doing any good or not. I think it may be too small for the area, but consider the following facts please:

I have a small vacation cabin, measuring 24 ft by 32 ft. The first floor is mainly "open" except for a bath room area. It has a cathedral ceiling, about 20 ft tall. This same basic main floor (768 Sq ft) has a "open" loft area, which covers 1/2 of the main floor. So, this open loft area is 24 ft X 16 ft,

I have a fireplace in the main area, which of course can be fully seen from the loft area, looking down on to the main floor. Mainly because of this fireplace as well as a k-1 oil heater, this cabin gets extremely dry, down to about 25 % humidity.

I bought a small humidifier, just to use in the small loft area, thinking it would help the area around my bed where I sleep in the loft. Its capacity is about 2 gals every 24 hours.

Perhaps I am expecting too much out of this small unit because the loft area that I am trying to humidify is "open" to the full area of the main floor, but at the same time I would think that it would raise the humidity level in the general area that is 8-10 feet from the unit. Yet, I can run it for

24 hours a day, and although it indeed uses up water (about 2 gals every 24 hours) neither the humidity gauge on the unit nor a separate humidity gauge usually show any change in humidity levels. There have been some times that the humidity has gone up by about 8-10 %, but other times that I can run the unit all day and night, and see no increase in the humidity level.

So, if the unit is using up water (it can't just disappear), then I guess that it isn't doing enough good to bring this loft area up to 45-50 % humidity level. Do I just need a much larger unit ??

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks !!

Jim

[Mark]

Depends a lot on the air changes in the area. Is there lots of ventilation?

Also it takes a while for the furniture etc to absorb the moisture. I run mine a lot too and don't see a big change on the guage.

Mark

[David Martel]

Jim,

Based on your description you have the equivalent of a 1400+ sq ft house. Your humidifier is much too small. Since it's a vacation cabin though I'm not sure a humidifier will be worth the trouble.

Dave M.

[hallerb]

thats a big space volume wise, you need a much bigger unit.

plus if the building leaks a lot, cracks around doors windows etc etc, the air changes too often.

[Joseph Meehan]

My guess is if you were to close up the fireplace you would see an improvement. With it I doubt if you are going to be able to maintain the humidity level. If you can bring in outside air directly to the fireplace and use a glass screen, that would help a lot, but I doubt if that would fit your plans. Open fireplaces just draw too much air and all that cold dry air entering the space is going to dry it out.

I would not try.

[trader4]

I second that opinion. The fireplace and heater are constantly drawing outside air in, and sending the inside air up the chimney, which is going to make it harder to maintain humidity. Simple solution would be to buy a much bigger humidifier.

[German Jerry]

If you have singe pane windows a different gauge of your humidity level may be the amount of frost or condensation on the windows. If they are high efficiency double or triple pane windows this wont work though.

I humidify a 1200 sq foot living area with a little 2 gallon Holmes humidifier and I have a fireplace too. But I did have to seal the fireplace up well before the cold draft stopped coming through the damper effecting temperature and humidity. I used a chimney balloon to plug up the chimney and weatherstripping also helped out significantly.

Admitedly if you have some location, like a fireplace chimney, letting in a significant amount of outside air that makes big trouble for temperature and humidity control.