Hooking up humidifier to water supply

If there's furnace air blowing through the media, that can change the temperature at the drain.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

I just measured the drain water temp on my Aprilaire 700 that's installed on my gas furnace. It's connected to hot water with the water heater about 8 ft away. I didn't measure the hot water temp, but it's set so that it's about 130F upstairs at the kitchen sink. The water exiting the drain is 75F.

There's one data point that's missing:

What is the room temperature?

Since it's much cooler than 75F in my basement, 75F water going down the drain would be "wasting heat", assuming that the 75F was the "residual" temperature of water that was once 130F. Minimal, but still a waste.

It's not the basement air temp that matters. It's the return air temp. House is at 68F, so yeah there is some small loss. But the essential point was that people think it's hot water, ie water that is at water heater temp going down the drain. I don't consider 75F to be hot water.

-snip-

Do you actually have much water going down that drain? Mine [Aprilaire 600] has been in for 3[?] years now, and though I know some water is going down the drain because there is discoloration in the clear tubing--- I *never* see it when I'm down there.

It would be a PITA to unhook it from the drain and stick it in a can for a day or 2 [and I'd probably forget it until there was a puddle] but I'm liable to do that one of these days.

I'm in your camp on this one-- There is little enough waste for me to think it is insignificant. [especially when I consider not having an efficient humidifier to start with-- or juggling 3 room humidifiers like we used to.]

The water is real hot going in and I'm about 12 feet from the tap into the hot water line.

Jim

It's a steady stream maybe half the size of a pencil in diameter.

No, mass has nothing to do with efficiency. The heat that the mass "gives off" has to be "put in" first. In fact, it's a loser because mass adds hysterias to the system.