Humidifier

I've had an Aprilaire humidifier on my furnace for quite some time and it does work. but recently I got a hygrometer to check the actual humidity in here, and see that when it gets below zero the humidity in the house is only about 12%. In warmer weather the humidity is up where it should be,,,in the 25% to 35% range.

I suppose I could just get a stand-alone unit but was wondering if my on-furnace unit could be improved any. The fan is working, the water flow is fine and I put a new element in it.

No big deal just thought I'd ask.

Reply to
philo
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Sounds like it should be working. I've got one and humidity in house is

41% compared to 59%/30 deg F outside. Maybe because you may be in a more arid area, i.e. outside air is very low.
Reply to
Frank

Sounds like it should be working. I've got one and humidity in house is

41% compared to 59%/30 deg F outside. Maybe because you may be in a more arid area, i.e. outside air is very low.

Concerning Health issues you Relative Humidity should be around 50-60% And yes when is cold outside "demand" for Humidity will be greater then if is warm. Because your furnace is displacing RH or taking it out through your smoke stock.

Reply to
Tony944

Well, we don't get that many really cold days anymore so I guess I need not worry about it.

Thanks

Reply to
philo

First question is if the humidifier is actually running whenever the furnace is on? Or is an inaccurate/defective humidistat the problem? I have an Aprilaire 760 in a 3100 sq ft house and it puts out enough moisture that it only needs to run a fraction of the on time. I do have mine hooked up to hot water, which will increase the amount of evaporation, but i doubt it makes a big difference. When it'd down in the teens or 20s, I could have water dripping off the windows if I set it high enough. If it's on all the time that the furnace is running, is water trickling out of it? You say it has a fan, so I assume it's one that just mounts on the hot side plenum and not a bypass style? That's what I have, the 760.

Reply to
trader_4

I'd say 50% is the upper limit when it's moderate temps outside. When it's below zero, like Philo has, I'd say 30% or so is tops, unless you want water condensing at windows, inside walls, etc.

Reply to
trader_4

The recommended settings are

-20F 15% humidity 0F 25%

+20F 35%

The humidifier and humidistat is working I checked all functions just not doing a sufficient job.

Reply to
philo

Yes, it runs continuously when the furnace is on, the water flow is sufficient (plenty coming out the hose) and the fan is working...plus I put in a new element>

My house is only 2000 sq ft, so it should be doing the job.

Will have to investigate further.

Reply to
philo

I've found that in cold weather I have a limit on the amount of humidity because above that limit (which varies with outside temp), the humidifier just causes condensation on windows.

-dan z-

Reply to
slate_leeper

Yes, I know but mine is not even getting up to the recommend level, I'm going to have another look, I think I better clean the calcium deposts off the diverter

Reply to
philo

do you have an excessive amount of air leaking in/out of the house to the

outside?

m
Reply to
makolber

House is very old and hardly sealed as well as a new one. but had the original windows replaced with energy efficient types a number of years ago.

I double checked everything in the humidifier and all is working, it seems it just not sufficient for this house.

That said, it probably is not a new problem...it's just that this is the first year I actually tested the humidity in here.

Reply to
philo

It's installed on the hot plenum? You could put hot water into it to increase the evaporation. It's not like you're wasting hot water. Whatever heat is in the water pretty much winds up in the air.

But I agree something is wrong because mine only runs part time in a 3100 sq ft house. When it's zero, I could be flooding the windows by setting it higher.

Have you stopped it when it's active and looked at the media? Is water covering all or most of it? If that diverter is somehow letting all the water go down one small section, instead of spreading it out, that would be a problem. You sure the fan in the humidifier is running?

Reply to
trader_4

Exactly. It needs to back off the lower the outside temps. And I presume you have the outside temp sensor that automatically adjusts it? That is a great feature.

Reply to
trader_4

The fan is absolutely running, and the diverter is fine.

I just checked to see if there were excess calcium deposits and it's fairly clean.

The media is new but it's hard to tell if it's fully saturated.

Will continue to poke around

Reply to
philo

I don't have an outside temp. sensor, but that's OK I like to fiddle with things.

First off, I've improved things quite a bit because I did not have the water supply stop-c*ck opened all the way so now with the extra water flow, the humidity is up almost to normal.

I've been reading up and see that I have a "flow-through" type humidifier which is not efficient in that more water goes down the drain than into the air.

If I decide to replace it, the "drum" type is supposed to actually put all of the water into the air.

Also: a few years back I replaced the motor and am pretty sure I put the fan on correctly but now I wonder which way the air is supposed to flow.

Will have to double check but I think I have it set to blow directly into the hot air plenum. I can't imagine reversing the air flow would make a difference???

Reply to
philo

Bingo.

IDK what the ratio is, but with the excess water goes the minerals that would foul it up.

And all of the minerals, bacteria, etc into the unit.

It's supposed to blow air out from the fan, through the media, into the plenum.

Reversing it might make a huge diff, but it sounds like you have it going the right way.

Reply to
trader_4
[snip]

I used to use a drum type whole house humidifier. It created loads of problems. The drum sits in a pan of water that is replenished by a feed pipe controlled by a float valve. As there is no mechanism to refresh the water in the pan, there is a concentration of minerals in the pan which leads to rapid crusting of the media sponge on the drum, the sides and bottom of the pan, and the part of the float valve that senses the level of water in the pan. If I forgot to manually clean out the water in the pan at least every 6 weeks, the media sponge would need replacement at least once each heating season. Once I got lazy, we had a particularly cold month, and the float valve became so heavy with mineral crust that it didn't float up when the pan filled and the water overflowed into the furnace. When I replaced the furnace (old and anyway, only 80% efficient), I replaced the humidifier with an Aprilaire flow through and despite the increased water consumption, I need to do far less maintenance on the unit and I believe that the increased water bill is far lower than what it used to cost me to purchase as many drum sponges as I required to keep the drum humidifier working properly. I recommend NOT changing to a drum type humidifier unless there's a model that automatically, periodically, flushes the water in the pan and that unit gets good user/testing reviews from a reputable source.

Reply to
Peter

Yah, hard water can fusk up a humidifier for sure.

So what I did was feed mine with water from the reverse osmosis unit (which I had anyway). Problem solved.

Reply to
Mo Rubel

Back in the 70s, I think it was Sears that had a drum type made like you suggest. It had a drain and when it was running, the drain opened and allowed a constant small flow of water to take the minerals away. I think it worked better than one would with no drain, but it also had water constantly flowing through it, just like the Aprilaire. And I agree that so far, the Aprilaire is the best I've seen. I can go at least two years, usually longer with the same media. And they are very simple to change and there is little else to clean.

Reply to
trader_4

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