Humidifiers

[James]

In cold weather the humidity in my house seems to range from 20 to 35 %. I've heard that the comfort level can be improved with a humidifier allowing the thermostat to be lowered somewhat. There are many on the market with claims of providing better humidity throughout the entire house but these are stand alone units and I kind of doubt the claims. It would seem to me that there are units available which connect directly to the furnace and the water supply. I would prefer something like that rather than hire an illegal alien to keep a stand alone unit filled with water. Those things only have a 1 to about 3 gallons capacity.

Can anyone enlighten me and/or make a suggestion for a forced air furnace or a standalone?

BTW What should the humidity comfort level be for a home? Any info greatly appreciated.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, It all matters with your location(climate), house air tightness, etc. Maximum humidity you can allow is to a point of fog almost forming on windows. When you say cold I don't know how much on thermometer. Where I am, it's around -20C and we have very dry climate. At -20C I maintain R.H. of 20-30% in my house. If I raise humidity higher than that, windows fog up. Popular power humidifer is Aprilaire which comes in different models to fit the size of house. I use spray nozzle type controlled by furnace blower power and humidistat.

[James]

Weather here is usually teens to 40s F during coldest months but dips to single digits and below often. A rather wide range I suppose for the Ohio valley. Humidity outside varies since weather comes from both the north and the south.

I never thought about inside fogging. I never see it around here because I doubt most don't use humidifiers.

Am I trying to fix something that's not broke?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, When you don't feel comfortable indoor, lots of static on your clothing and hair, dry nose, etc. are typical sign of too low R.H. Out here, without humidifier in winter, it can cause nose bleeding, static, higher heating cost, etc. Believe or not, w/o proper humidification, hygrometer can register negative R.H.(pointer going below zero) here.

[The Freon Cowboy]

proper humidity in colder times of the year , can and does greatly increase comfort ,and health issues , since humid air tends to retain its heat , it makes sense , that you would "feel" warmer , thus allowing for a lower setting on the tstat, tony touched on , it , dry scratchy throat in the mornings, static electricity when touching doorknobs? , noseblleds ? chapped lips ? these are all indications of lower humidity , and a further indication, that you could benefit from a humidfier

i recommend a pulse type humidifier , uses a single orifice mounted in the plenum, and has only one moving part , the solenoid itself , has a small logic board , and has the capability to run the furnace blower independently of the heating cycles to add needed moisture if need be ,

you still havent told us where you are , it does matter !!!!

"James" wrote:

[Mark]

Hide quoted text -

I agree with everything everyone has said about humidity (excpet the comment about neagative RH.) and I have tried humdifiers and I find the major issue in choosing a humdiifer is how does it deal with the minerals in the water.

Some of them spray water into the air and you get a fine mineral dust on everything in the house.

With some furnace units, the minerals collect in the plenum, thats not good.

Some of them the minerals collect in the humidifer on a pad and it has to be cleaned regularly, a pain but not too bad.

Some of them have a water flow through where the excess minerals are carried out in the waste water.

How does the pulse unit deal with the minerals?

Comments please.

Mark

[James]

I'm south of the Ohio river about 40 miles east of Louisville. The pulse type humidifier sounds good and I do have those symptoms although at times (depending on the weather) they are not as noticeable.

[Tekkie®]

The Freon Cowboy posted for all of us...

So does licking windows!

[modervador]

If you have fossil fuel heat, use a model that uses outdoor air for combustion. Without such "sealed combustion" air must enter the house to make up for lost air up the flue. This infiltrated make-up air is dry, but the air that goes into the furnace/boiler is moist. Adding a humidifier only replaces the lost moisture but does not eliminate the loss. Eliminating the loss by using a sealed combustion heater is often sufficient to maintain reasonable humidity from the common household moisture sources alone.