Home humidity

[Old-Duckman]

I have heated my house with an electric heat pump for a few years and dealt with dry air until I had a hunidifier added 2 years ago, it works great.

I had not intended on using my pellet stove as the main heat source but after reading many post here from people who do, I started considering it.

If I used the pellet stove as my only heat source I would lose the use of the whole house humidifier since it is attached to the furnace and runs when the furnace blower does.

What do you all do for the dry air issue in the winter months?

 

[jamesdjs]

I use a 3 gallon house humidifier. I fill it once a day. Still it only get the house to ~20 -30%% humidity.

 

[Souzafone]

Very seldom do we use the humidifier, 57% humidity right now, stove running on low almost constantly the last 24 hours, 49 degrees here. Our FHA was much more uncomfortable in this regard, but it'll be interesting to check this in December. Things to consider, we have no OAK, our house is 50 years old, reasonably well insulated with new windows, and small. YMMV.

 

[briansol]

I have a free-standing kenmore unit similiar to this:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03217006000P?prdNo=10&blockNo=10&blockType=L10

Running on auto, it usually runs mid fan speed and can keep my house around 40% humidity.

it is louder than i would like it to be, especially on high fan speed.

It lasts about a day. I top of the stove and i fill the reservoir on the humidifier at the same time.

I change the filter once a season. The reviews exaggerate the replacements.

 

[imacman]

This what I use......holds 12 Gallons. Sears Kenmore Console unit (made by Emerson).

 

[minakena]

I have a Holmes 9 gal cool mist humidifier. It really is simple to operate and it does make a difference making the house actually feel warmer and much more comffortable

 

[Corny]

Our home winter humidity has improved (increased) significantly since heating with external combustion air intake.

 

[Nicholas440]

I added a Hunter 4 gallon humidifier which does a very good job, and I keep the living room area at 45% which is comfortable for me.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Our home winter humidity has improved (increased) significantly since heating with external combustion air intake.

As it should considering you are not allowing that nice cold dry Canadian air to infiltrate into the house at the rate is was when sucking the inside air outside.

BTW: Corny, welcome to the forum.

 

[peirhead]

If you can continue running the furnace in air circulation mode only ( no heating) you can continue to humidify the house and have the extra benefit of circulating the heated pellet air as well...best of both worlds if you dont mind spending say $20/month for the electricity for the fan. In my old house the forced air furnace fan ran all the time, it had a 2 speed fan, low normally and high when calling for heat.

If you don't have and OAK and need more humidity, I'd say install the OAK first then review the humidity issues

 

[imacman]

BTW: Corny, welcome to the forum.

x2 Welcome!

 

[save$]

One seasonal trick we use with a degree of sucess is to disconnect the dryer from venting to the outside and add a nylon stocking to the end or drop the hose down into a bucket with some water in it. You will capture the heat from the dryer and if you home is dry, you will benifit from the added mositure. Just remember to hook it back up when you stop heating with the pellet stove. We have been doing this for years. Infact, there is a dryer exhaust kit that you can buy to will allow for the same set up I have discribed. that one has a build in air diverter that you just switch over. I prefer to plug off the air vent with insulation to prevent cold air form comming in. Ever notice how cold your dryer is in the middle of the winter? Won't happen with this adjustment.

 

[save$]

sorry. double posting?

 

[Irishman]

Old-Duckman,

As was stated earlier, you can run your furnace fan to recirculate your air in the house, but, with most furnaces, you will have to install a relay to get the whole house humidifier to kick on when the fan is run without the furnace kicking in. Most HVAC places will know what relay needs to be installed to make this happen. I have a Carrier and the HVAC tech installed the relay. This system works great for humidifying the house and it may help more evenly distribute the warmer air in your house, dependent upon your layout and basement temperature. Another thing that really helps in this type of setup is a thermostat with a programmable fan control. I installed a LUX 1500 with a fan controller called a Clean Cycle system. You can program it to run a total of 9 minutes per hour in various intervals up to constant running. Another possibility is purchasing a Therm Guard, which is a small add on device that does the same thing with the fan interval timing. I've used both, but I prefer the all-in-one LUX. Honeywell makes one as well, but they are almost twice the price of the LUX. I'm sure, however, that the Honeywell is better quality.

I considered a stand alone unit in my house, but the built in, whole house humidifier just made more sense. Plus, I don't have to screw around with filling a stand alone unit up or keeping it clean or changing the filter. Good luck.

 

[Old-Duckman]

Thanx for the feedback all.

My furnace does have 3 fan settings. one is "Circ" ("circulate" one would assume) one "auto" and the other, simply "on". Not sure of the difference between "on" and "circ" but it does seem like I will be able to humidify through that route. Firestarter...thanx for the info on the relay and the programable fan set-up. I will be contacting my furnace guy and see what he can do for me.