Adding moisture to the air

I recall the install but not the time frame/length of time. It was in the afternoon in like Jan and it wasn't dark when I got done if that means anything. I remember we had a storm coming in that week and my wife was concerned there would be no heat for Gramps. We had grabbed the Generator on sale prior and it was just here. Then the potential for the storm came up so I had to get into action. It's been handy. It ran for 3 days straight in a hurricane ( just shut down to gas and check oil) and we have had two winter storms where it ran for two days each. Other than that it's been 30 minutes or 4 hours here and there etc.. My wife blew the voltage regulator on it one time, shut it down without cutting the power first. Poof, electronic regulator !

alternativeheat said:

I recall the install but not the time frame/length of time. It was in the afternoon in like Jan and it wasn't dark when I got done if that means anything. I remember we had a storm coming in that week and my wife was concerned there would be no heat for Gramps. We had grabbed the Generator on sale prior and it was just here. Then the potential for the storm came up so I had to get into action. It's been handy. It ran for 3 days straight in a hurricane ( just shut down to gas and check oil) and we have had two winter storms where it ran for two days each. Other than that it's been 30 minutes or 4 hours here and there etc.. My wife blew the voltage regulator on it one time, shut it down without cutting the power first. Poof, electronic regulator !

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oops........

I recall the install but not the time frame/length of time. It was in the afternoon in like Jan and it wasn't dark when I got done if that means anything. I remember we had a storm coming in that week and my wife was concerned there would be no heat for Gramps. We had grabbed the Generator on sale prior and it was just here. Then the potential for the storm came up so I had to get into action. It's been handy. It ran for 3 days straight in a hurricane ( just shut down to gas and check oil) and we have had two winter storms where it ran for two days each. Other than that it's been 30 minutes or 4 hours here and there etc.. My wife blew the voltage regulator on it one time, shut it down without cutting the power first. Poof, electronic regulator !

Tonyray said:

oops........

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Ya, good thing to remember, cut that power or pull the cord ( mine has a rocker switch on it for power). She gassed it before successfully, oh well.

alternativeheat said:

I recall the install but not the time frame/length of time. It was in the afternoon in like Jan and it wasn't dark when I got done if that means anything. I remember we had a storm coming in that week and my wife was concerned there would be no heat for Gramps. We had grabbed the Generator on sale prior and it was just here. Then the potential for the storm came up so I had to get into action. It's been handy. It ran for 3 days straight in a hurricane ( just shut down to gas and check oil) and we have had two winter storms where it ran for two days each. Other than that it's been 30 minutes or 4 hours here and there etc.. My wife blew the voltage regulator on it one time, shut it down without cutting the power first. Poof, electronic regulator !

Ya, good thing to remember, cut that power or pull the cord ( mine has a rocker switch on it for power). She gassed it before successfully, oh well.

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with my rig, I shut the fuel line off, after a few minutes it starves for fuel, then it's chuga chuga for about a minute before it stops alltogether, then I shut the switch to off. reason is to get all the fuel out of the carb... I do dump couple oz's of fuel stabilizer in my tank each time I fill it since I keep it on the backporch and fire it up usually every 4- 6 weeks for a little while to keep it ready.
Mine is Electric start so I have a small battery tender hooked to it all the time to keep it at 12V.

Tonyray said:

with my rig, I shut the fuel line off, after a few minutes it starves for fuel, then it's chuga chuga for about a minute before it stops alltogether, then I shut the switch to off. reason is to get all the fuel out of the carb... I do dump couple oz's of fuel stabilizer in my tank each time I fill it since I keep it on the backporch and fire it up usually every 4- 6 weeks for a little while to keep it ready.
Mine is Electric start so I have a small battery tender hooked to it all the time to keep it at 12V.

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I meant the power switch to the house Tony. before shutting down the engine flip that power switch off. I do the same as you when shutting down after a running session, I cut the fuel too and when it burbs a few times I kill the ignition then. But that is long after the switch to the house has been cut, the house is all on street power again etc.

FWIW, to the OP or who ever is interested, my humidifier has put between 4-5 gallons of water in the air in 11 hours running on medium fan or Auto.

To use the stove for humidifying the air, I have an aluminum pan that makes contact with the side of the stove, not the top. The stove's sides are much hotter than the top where you're pulling heat out via the distribution fan output.

I've used a pan on the top surface but on the side the same volume of water evaporates 3X or more faster.

The other way is to use your stove to dry the laundry - putting clothes racks in front of the stove. Lots of water vapor going into the air that way and you save on the cost of drying clothes in the dryer.

jp99 said:

To use the stove for humidifying the air, I have an aluminum pan that makes contact with the side of the stove, not the top. The stove's sides are much hotter than the top where you're pulling heat out via the distribution fan output.

I've used a pan on the top surface but on the side the same volume of water evaporates 3X or more faster.

The other way is to use your stove to dry the laundry - putting clothes racks in front of the stove. Lots of water vapor going into the air that way and you save on the cost of drying clothes in the dryer.

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I also dry some of my laundry on racks downstairs (anything that I wouldn't have to iron goes on the racks).

During winter I don't run my bathroom exhaust fan when I shower, and keep the door open the whole time, so the moisture gets out in the house. I get good air flow from the way the stove is pointing. 99% of the time the medicine cabinet mirror isn't even fogged/steamed when I am done. If the mirror gets steamy, then I turn on the fan to make sure I don't have mold issues. Let me be clear, I don't suggest anyone do this - my set up and specific circumstances allow me to do this (I didn't do it last year with a different stove set up). So I don't recommend anyone else do it.

I also have a small, portable dishwasher that is set up on a rolling microwave cart. When I run the dishwasher (which is hooked to the kitchen faucet), I plug the sink drain to catch all the waste water. I let the water set in the sink until it gets cold. And, once the dishwasher is done and I've moved it back to it's wall, I open the door and pull the racks out so that there is max airflow to let the dishes dry and get some humidity in the air.

So far this week the humidifier has put about 30 gallons of water in the air and holding the house between 36% and 46% humidity levels. By Sat afternoon, that number will be increased to apprx 50-55 gallons. That's without boosting it to 50% humidity, which is the level of humidity most piano tuners suggest that the average acoustic piano lives in ( I own a grand piano). It is things like big pianos,hard wood floors,all wood cabinets, wood work that suck up humidity.

this is what i have and love it.

http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-1128-Ev...507&sr=8-2&keywords=lasko+9+gallon+humidifier

bogieb said:

I also dry some of my laundry on racks downstairs (anything that I wouldn't have to iron goes on the racks).

During winter I don't run my bathroom exhaust fan when I shower, and keep the door open the whole time, so the moisture gets out in the house. I get good air flow from the way the stove is pointing. 99% of the time the medicine cabinet mirror isn't even fogged/steamed when I am done. If the mirror gets steamy, then I turn on the fan to make sure I don't have mold issues. Let me be clear, I don't suggest anyone do this - my set up and specific circumstances allow me to do this (I didn't do it last year with a different stove set up). So I don't recommend anyone else do it.

I also have a small, portable dishwasher that is set up on a rolling microwave cart. When I run the dishwasher (which is hooked to the kitchen faucet), I plug the sink drain to catch all the waste water. I let the water set in the sink until it gets cold. And, once the dishwasher is done and I've moved it back to it's wall, I open the door and pull the racks out so that there is max airflow to let the dishes dry and get some humidity in the air.

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Amazing how many of us end up doing the same things!

I do, however, let hot water go down my drains. It helps keep them from getting clogged. Near boiling water is even better, if your set up can handle it.

jp99 said:

Amazing how many of us end up doing the same things!

I do, however, let hot water go down my drains. It helps keep them from getting clogged. Near boiling water is even better, if your set up can handle it.

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Oh, plenty of hot water goes down the drain from other stuff, but I also repurpose the dishwasher water by using it to wash any dishes that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, or aren't dishwasher safe.

bogieb said:

Oh, plenty of hot water goes down the drain from other stuff, but I also repurpose the dishwasher water by using it to wash any dishes that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, or aren't dishwasher safe.

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I often wondered how a single person living alone could build up enough collection of dirty dishes to warrant the use of a dish washer. Because on the occasion where I'm home alone cooking I might use one pan, one pot, one plate ( and that might be paper), one knife, one fork and a spoon. All of which takes about 2 minutes to clean up after dinner. I don't even put them away because I'm going to repeat for the next meal and the next etc.

Then I discovered it's the difference between men and women. I watch my wife cook, she drags out things and utilizes devises I didn't even know existed, this beater, that mixing dish, a certain spoon shaped device for one detail and another for something else LOL !! We get done with a meal and it looks a we held a banquet with 25 guests at the house for all the dirty dishes.

Mine will even use a measuring cup for water, then put it the sink to be washed....
huh?

TStark said:

Mine will even use a measuring cup for water, then put it the sink to be washed....
huh?

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I won't start on water use differences. Since we have a septic system and not street sewage it matters, well to me anyway..

alternativeheat said:

On the other hand we have a cabinet style wick or evaporative humidifier, I fill that twice a day and it holds something on the order of 8-11 gallons of water.

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That amounts to about 20 gallons a day? We don't use a humidifier - but that seems like a lot?

alternativeheat said:

I won't start on water use differences. Since we have a septic system and not street sewage it matters, well to me anyway..

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I live on a lake, so I have a tight tank, so nothing at all leaches into the ground and I pay dearly to get that 4400 gallon tank pumped. Let's just say I spend a lot of time 'watering' the arborvitaes in the back yard instead of using the bathroom......weather permitting.

alternativeheat said:

I often wondered how a single person living alone could build up enough collection of dirty dishes to warrant the use of a dish washer. Because on the occasion where I'm home alone cooking I might use one pan, one pot, one plate ( and that might be paper), one knife, one fork and a spoon. All of which takes about 2 minutes to clean up after dinner. I don't even put them away because I'm going to repeat for the next meal and the next etc.

Then I discovered it's the difference between men and women. I watch my wife cook, she drags out things and utilizes devises I didn't even know existed, this beater, that mixing dish, a certain spoon shaped device for one detail and another for something else LOL !! We get done with a meal and it looks a we held a banquet with 25 guests at the house for all the dirty dishes.

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Since I don't cook unless it is in the crockpot, that doesn't apply to me. The dishwasher is a 6 place setting dishwasher (just small enough that I cannot fit the crock pot in it). I run it twice a week and it is mostly filled with Birdie's water dishes (changed out daily), Fuzzy's canned food dish (changed out daily), coffee mugs, water glasses and my dishes from what I took to work for lunch. My dishwasher uses 3 gallons of water each time it is run. I guarantee that just one day's of dishes, hand washed and rinsed, I used more than that. Go ahead, I dare you - do not overflow a half sink while washing/rinsing the day's dishes by hand. Every bit of water the dishwasher uses is contained nicely in my 1/2 sink.

I also have no counter space (ok - what I have is 3x2 & 4x2) so need somewhere to hold dishes until there are enough to bother washing. The sink is not good since I regularly clean out paint brushes and other things, so the dishwasher is perfect. Didn't have a dishwasher when I was married (okay, the dishwasher was me), but then there were lots of counters and enough dishes to bother washing them every evening.

alternativeheat said:

I often wondered how a single person living alone could build up enough collection of dirty dishes to warrant the use of a dish washer. Because on the occasion where I'm home alone cooking I might use one pan, one pot, one plate ( and that might be paper), one knife, one fork and a spoon. All of which takes about 2 minutes to clean up after dinner. I don't even put them away because I'm going to repeat for the next meal and the next etc.

Then I discovered it's the difference between men and women. I watch my wife cook, she drags out things and utilizes devises I didn't even know existed, this beater, that mixing dish, a certain spoon shaped device for one detail and another for something else LOL !! We get done with a meal and it looks a we held a banquet with 25 guests at the house for all the dirty dishes.

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I also dirty the least amount of dishes I can when in the kitchen, and would not be without a dishwasher even if I was single. Actually, I have been single the last couple of days and will be until tomorrow sometime (unless they get storm stayed) - and everything I use in that time has & will go right in the dishwasher. Then get washed once it gets loaded.

maple1 said:

That amounts to about 20 gallons a day? We don't use a humidifier - but that seems like a lot?

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That's because it's incorrect LOL. I fill it twice a day but it isn't totally empty twice a day. Also with this warmer winter I have only been filling one tank at a time in the last few days ( when one tank empties it starts on the next automatically). No since last Saturday I've run about 40 gallons through it at this point. I'll fill it tonight and again in the morning most likely. By Sat evening it will have put near 50 gallons of water in the air since last sat. When I fired it up Saturday though it did suck both tanks down in less than 24 hours but it's settled down now. The house is at 45% today.

That sounds like a lot too.

We don't humidify, right now the monitor on the shelf in front of me says 34%. We don't really find it 'too dry', but also don't have any pianos to worry about. We do have wood floors, haven't noticed any issues there.

We also don't exhaust anything in the winter, except for what leaves when doors open, and what gets sucked out via stack effect. I think that is the major contributor to lower winter humidity levels - increased stack effect from the increased in/out temperature differential, pulling dry outside air in via air leakage points. We have some basement windows that will need replacing before next winter - didn't realize they were as bad as they are until taking a closer look a couple months ago. Also still have a section of basement wall that's not insulated yet - I should also shore up all the insulation down there & double check the sill area again. Also heavily considering a thermal cam to look for places it might be leaving up top - suspect the batts up there might be coming up a bit short. Hard to say what trouble's lurking, unseen....

maple1 said:

That sounds like a lot too.

We don't humidify, right now the monitor on the shelf in front of me says 34%. We don't really find it 'too dry', but also don't have any pianos to worry about. We do have wood floors, haven't noticed any issues there.

We also don't exhaust anything in the winter, except for what leaves when doors open, and what gets sucked out via stack effect. I think that is the major contributor to lower winter humidity levels - increased stack effect from the increased in/out temperature differential, pulling dry outside air in via air leakage points. We have some basement windows that will need replacing before next winter - didn't realize they were as bad as they are until taking a closer look a couple months ago. Also still have a section of basement wall that's not insulated yet - I should also shore up all the insulation down there & double check the sill area again. Also heavily considering a thermal cam to look for places it might be leaving up top - suspect the batts up there might be coming up a bit short. Hard to say what trouble's lurking, unseen....

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Leaks matter for sure, this house leaks all over the place . Anyway I have the humidifier set for 50% and it's been on auto all day which is keeping it hovering between 44 and 46%. It needs more differential away from 50% for the blower to go on high or I could manually put it on high and that would jump it up to 50% pretty quickly. I'm not concerned about it, so it's on auto and cycling between low and medium fan instead.

Most piano techs will suggest 50-55% is best for piano stability. Most people have no clue about that until they up the quality level of an instrument and decide to really take care of it, get it professionally tuned etc. But that's the deal. They can live with less though, 40% is fine and actually even lower if they stay there. I mean you could own a piano in Nevada where it's really dry, it's the big swings in humidity that kill them. It can alter tonal quality and also crack wood , loosen tuning pins so now it won't stay in tune without expensive repair. And it can crack a sound board to have huge swings in humidity levels. I've owned my grand piano for more than 30 years now but these days I play a digital much more. Digital is always in tune and offers me more options in creating compositions.

bogieb said:

Since I don't cook unless it is in the crockpot, that doesn't apply to me. The dishwasher is a 6 place setting dishwasher (just small enough that I cannot fit the crock pot in it). I run it twice a week and it is mostly filled with Birdie's water dishes (changed out daily), Fuzzy's canned food dish (changed out daily), coffee mugs, water glasses and my dishes from what I took to work for lunch. My dishwasher uses 3 gallons of water each time it is run. I guarantee that just one day's of dishes, hand washed and rinsed, I used more than that. Go ahead, I dare you - do not overflow a half sink while washing/rinsing the day's dishes by hand. Every bit of water the dishwasher uses is contained nicely in my 1/2 sink.

I also have no counter space (ok - what I have is 3x2 & 4x2) so need somewhere to hold dishes until there are enough to bother washing. The sink is not good since I regularly clean out paint brushes and other things, so the dishwasher is perfect. Didn't have a dishwasher when I was married (okay, the dishwasher was me), but then there were lots of counters and enough dishes to bother washing them every evening.

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It is true that some of today's appliances are mighty miserly on water. My wife's cloths washer is crazy, I have no idea how it gets cloths clean, between so little water and little motion used.

Crock pots are awesome ! We have two or three different ones around here. I bought my own personal little one a few years ago to make some one pot dishes I like. One thing was chili for a small gathering of people, we met every couple of weeks. Another was a particular black bean dish I make. But we have done all sorts of things in it.