Q&A Low humidity

Question:

Hello, We are heating with an Osburn 1600 fireplace insert and an Ashley freestanding woodstove. We live in a log home in southern New Hampshire. We moved into this house in December and had the insert installed in January. The indoor humidity is at 20 - 25% measured with a cheap humidistat. How do I add moisture back into the air? We have open pots of water on each woodstove. We had a large kettle on one but it did not seem empty often so we use open pots instead. We purchased a humidifier but concerns with molds and maintenance(disinfect w/ bleach weekly) led to it being returned unused. We have a room size warm mist humidifier but today is the first day of use and I don't think it is large enough. The house is heated with baseboard hot water so options are limited there. The furnace is in a separate garage. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I love your site. We are new to woodstoves and wood heat so I have used your site as a resource. Osburn does not advertise on your site but I felt confident in purchasing the insert due to the info I got from Hearthnet.



Answer:

It will be difficult to get the amount of humidity that you need without a separate humidifier. My own house has hot water baseboard and we have a bit of a problem ourselves. Since we live in humid (and not too cold) southern NJ, we simply keep a window or two in the home cracked. This allows for fresh air and humidity.

I understand the concern about molds. There was a big stink about that years ago when the "cold" humidifiers first shower up.

Look around - perhaps you can get a "hot" humidifier or maybe a manufacturer has addressed the mold problem in a better way.