Humidifying the air - 1%/hr

[Shari]

Our water is pretty hard here, it's mineral dust.

We have the Walgreen's Cool Mist humidifier which did the same thing. We now have a different water supply and so far no 'white' dust. Yes, the white dust is from minerals in your water but I understand there are de-mineralizer cartridges available for some of the cool mist humidifiers.

Shari

 

[nola mike]

How do you like the ultrasonic? Which do you have? I have a sears warm air unit that does a great job but they are energy hogs...

sunpentown su-2000. 2 gal/day output. nice thing is the 2 gal tank, so you only have to fill it once/day. works great. as others mentioned, cool mist units tend to put out a white powder if you have hard water. i haven't had any issues though.

 

[Battenkiller]

The only thing I miss about using the central heating system is the really wonderful quality of moist heat that came from the central steam boiler with radiators in every room.

The most unmanageable humidity control situation I ever encountered was in a retail location that had steam radiators. I had so much damage to musical instruments occur there that I had to move my shop back to my wood heated home. I once had a very rare old flute with an ivory head joint split apart overnight to reveal a 1/16" wide crack when I arrived the next morning to find an empty humidifier. In that store, the humidity could get as low as 6% RH, whereas I am never below about 20% in my present location. Still way too low for stringed instruments, but I manage by using internal wicking humidifiers (Dampits) in them and keeping them in humidity controlled cases.

 

[Lanningjw]

Well, I decided to try and run the furnace humidifier without the furnace running. At first I just energized the solenoid that allows water flow through the furnace humidifer with a jumper and turning the blower on manual but then realized I can just increase the setpoint on the thermostat (no propane is hooked up to the furnace) and keep the blower on manually and the solenoid remains energized. The house humidity has increased axactly 1% every hour. I;m not sure if it is worth running the house blower for this. Does it sound worthwile? Would I get better results from a store bought house humidifier?

We tried this but found it blew to much cold air up into the main living area, and the cold air coming out of the register was to cold to sit by. The Humidifier and furnace fan were also running all the time. I thought it would work, it does just not very well.
JL

 

[Battenkiller]

We have the Walgreen's Cool Mist humidifier which did the same thing. We now have a different water supply and so far no 'white' dust. Yes, the white dust is from minerals in your water but I understand there are de-mineralizer cartridges available for some of the cool mist humidifiers.

Minerals aren't the only thing to be concerned about. The EPA warns about illness-causing microbes that are disbursed most effectively by cool mist and impeller-type humidifiers. They need to be cleaned daily if you are to avoid "humidifier fever".

 

[clr8ter]

I don't have anything per-se against steam, it's just that anything that heats water costs a fortune to run........

 

[Mcbride]

I don't have anything per-se against steam, it's just that anything that heats water costs a fortune to run........

Oh so very true.