Open air kit and humidity.

Are you talking about a heat exchanger for the house or an Outside Air Kit for the stove?

That is normally referred to as an OAK - outside air kit. It brings fresh air in from outside and uses outside air for combustion instead of inside air. If you do a search here for 'OAK', you will find lots of entries. Some people (like me) find an OAK works really well, some hate them. It's important that the outside vent not be in an area that will be negative pressure, otherwise, your draft will be decreased. An OAK that is not working well will decrease draft and can even turn into a chimney under certain conditions.

To your question - I'm not sure that an OAK will make a significant difference in humidity levels in your home. The theory is that outside combustion air is already seeping through all the cracks you have in the house, so all you'd be doing is forcing the air to go directly to the stove, instead of through the house first. A King will need a fair bit of air, since it's got an 8" chimney, the same as my Equinox. Most people install OAKs because they have draft problems that can only be corrected by opening a window.

You really don't need an iron pot for water, any metal (Stainless pot) will work just fine. If your only issue is humidity, I'd go that route instead of an OAK. Simpler is better. I had a house humidifier in a former house and I agree it's a PITA.

Another way to help is to not use a bathroom vent when showering. Usually people need them to lower humidity but it may help in your case not to turn it on.

Niko, your interior air is too dry in the winter because the house leaks too much air. Too much dry exterior air is flushing out the humidity produced inside by human activity (cooking, bathing, breathing, plants, fish tanks, etc.). Your best shot at increasing interior humidity is by having a blower door directed air sealing job done. Much of the work you could do yourself, crawling around in the attic with a can of foam sealant and sealing around wiring penetrations, ceiling light fixtures, etc. Seal around the sill and rim joist in the basement, too. A fiberglass batt pushed up against the rim won't stop air leakage. Here's a good start for reading about air sealing a house: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/getting-biggest-bang-your-air-sealing-buck.

See also "Air Sealing" in this blog: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/how-do-everything

DickRussell said:

Niko, your interior air is too dry in the winter because the house leaks too much air. Too much dry exterior air is flushing out the humidity produced inside by human activity (cooking, bathing, breathing, plants, fish tanks, etc.). Your best shot at increasing interior humidity is by having a blower door directed air sealing job done. Much of the work you could do yourself, crawling around in the attic with a can of foam sealant and sealing around wiring penetrations, ceiling light fixtures, etc. Seal around the sill and rim joist in the basement, too. A fiberglass batt pushed up against the rim won't stop air leakage. Here's a good start for reading about air sealing a house: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/getting-biggest-bang-your-air-sealing-buck.

See also "Air Sealing" in this blog: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/how-do-everything

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That's a good explanation. Knowing this, an OAK may actually help a bit with containing moisture in the home as the stove will draw less of the conditioned indoor air. Proper airsealing will still be required, though, to get the full effect.

A money-saving way of raising the indoor humidity is a simple drying rack for your clothes in front of the stove.

As of the beginning of burning season I had to run a humidifier. I set up a OAK mid season to see what changes it made based on recommendations from fellow hearth members. The only true change I noticed was the rooms further away from the stove were warmer, basically the house as a whole was. My home is 2010 construction, relatively tight, and make up air has to come from somewhere, and that's through any crack the air can find as a path. Anyways, with the oak I did not notice much of a change in humidity, still had to run the unit to keep it in the 35% range, but it was an overall improvement and I'll reccomend it.

An OAK should make a huge difference in even a semi-tight house. Every bit of air used for combustion without an OAK has to leak into the house. Since humidity is dependent on temperature, that 30º air that is at 35% outdoors is suddenly only at 5% in your house. The more air is exchanged with outdoors the dryer it will get in that heat conditioned house. If you use an OAK at least that part of your air in-leakage is removed from the equation. Other reasons for air leakage like exhaust fans will still require replacing moisture but at least that one loss will be gone.

Niko said:

Well I'm planning on getting some spray foam kits and sealing up my attic myself or paying someone. House is built around the mid 60s. I just redid the windows with triple glass double. low e argon gas. But yea the attic is def next. It's funny everytime you seal something up your notice more clearly where the other leak is coming from. I'm also wondering if I should put the dunk dicier downstairs where the stove is, what do you think?

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OK, I yield. What is a dunk dicier?

If you can identify where you have the most air leaking into the home, that would be a good place to locate the humidifier.