How do you deal with humidity?

[zeke7237]

What options are there other than pots of water on top of the stove? That's not an easy option for me since the Harman is a top-loader. I've got a room humidifier in here which puts about 6 gallons of water a day into the air, but it's still too dry in here .. to the point where it's giving us sinus headaches. I was going to try putting a humidifier on the furnace and running the fan, but the temperature almost certainly will not be warm enough for reasonable humidification. What else have people tried, and how does it work?

thanks
john d

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I dont deal with it, what i do deal with is brittle fingernails, dry lips, bloody noses, and wrinlky skin. I have a reef aquarium in the basement that looses almost 5 gallons of water a day to evaporation, and my house stays around 16%.

 

[mikeathens]

Man! and I thought my 30% was too dry!! I haven't really found a good way to keep humidity up. I just put a warm mist humidifier in the bedroom. Of course, it's sucking up electricty to run it.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

my climate is considerd a semi arid desert. Its usually in the single digits outside.

 

[Roospike]

Maybe an outside air kit for a stove ..................

That would stop the stove from using your conditioned air to fire the stove and up the stack.
How about running a clothes dryer to a transfer box so you can blow your clothes dryer air back into your home. Now that will bring back up the humidity back up.

I run a 15 gallon per day humidifier in the stove room ( 15 gallon per day if you fill it every time its empty and run it on high ) We fill it up twice per day and run it on low and our 1800 sf house is around 45% humidity. We dont run the clothes dryer converter or an outside air kit. but we have run a clothes dryer converter an other homes and it shot up the humidity level big time.

 

[mikeathens]

One thing to keep in mind with running the clothes dryer inside: You can seriously reduce your indoor air quality. I don't have any citations on hand to refer you to, but studies have shown that venting your dryer exhaust inside can seriously raise indoor VOC levels.

 

[z-man]

my climate is considerd a semi arid desert. Its usually in the single digits outside.

MSG, I just looked up your town, my Aunt is 1 town over in Ward. Crazy elevation, Aren't you guys at 10,000ft? She literally lives on the side of a mountain. You must be getting a kick out of the thread where us here in Mass are preparing for 5-7" by the coast (my town), and 15+ out west.....

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

we are only at 9000', but we are less then a mile from the contential divide (as the crow flies) we get snow, but not usally like upstate NY is getting! Ward is a crazy place, people still wear buckskin suits and carry bowie nives at the little bar there. I love to go to that bar and just people watch.

I would think that severl small humidifiers spread throughout the house should help. What a pain to keep having to feed them. My aquarium has auto top off so its just constantly putting humidity in the air.

 

[tutu_sue]

I've had several humidifiers, but couldn't keep up until I bought a humidfier that is rated for twice the square footage. Keeps humidity from 40 to 45% without having to run constantly. Over the summer I did a lot of draft sealing and humidifer is keeping up even better than last year, particularly during the very cold days. I've heard that humidifers that mist (don't forget the filter to prevent mineral dust) keep up humidity better than evaporative units.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Stacking wood in the house (basement) is a good way to add moisture to your environment and dry your wood out really well at the same time.

 

[Martin Strand III]

Trying to raise humidity indoors in winter is a longstanding problem unless you run your forced air furnace for heat with an attached humidifier.

Here's what I've done with varying degrees of success:

* Boil water on stove
* Bring wood inside to dry
* Dry clothes on indoor line vs clothes drier
* Add an indoor swimming pool to your home
* Vaseline lips, nose and skin
* Put up with it until Spring

Electric humidifiers can be bacteria spawning machines resulting in lung infections unless frequently methodically and thoroughly cleaned.

Aye,
Marty

 

[Roospike]

Electric humidifiers can be bacteria spawning machines resulting in lung infections unless frequently methodically and thoroughly cleaned.

Every time we fill our humidifier tank we add "Holmes Humidifier Bacteriostat" and also a "BestAir Humidifier Scents" ( French Vanilla & others )

One 32oz bottle will last about 2 winters. No issues with bacteria or hard water , one just needs to know how to user there humidifier and the best approach to using it. We also by the 4 pack of filters and replace the filters every winter. ( 2 per season )

 

[DiscoInferno]

Stacking wood in the house (basement) is a good way to add moisture to your environment and dry your wood out really well at the same time.

That's not a bad idea for year-round dry climates and heated basements. Might not be so good where summers are humid though. My basement's a largely dead airspace that stays around 40-50 degrees in the winter. I'm not sure how much moisture would make it out of the wood and upstairs in the winter. And then in the summer when the outside humidity goes into the 90's, it would tax the A/C and the dehumidifier I run in the basement.

 

[Martin Strand III]

Electric humidifiers can be bacteria spawning machines resulting in lung infections unless frequently methodically and thoroughly cleaned.

Every time we fill our humidifier tank we add "Holmes Humidifier Bacteriostat" and also a "BestAir Humidifier Scents" ( French Vanilla & others )

One 32oz bottle will last about 2 winters. No issues with bacteria or hard water , one just needs to know how to user there humidifier and the best approach to using it. We also by the 4 pack of filters and replace the filters every winter. ( 2 per season )

You may be OK if you don't forget or let your guard down, but what about the myriads of other folks?

For me, I'd rather not be breathing in microorganisms or scented aerosolized chemical bacteriostatics. May it's just me, but I like clean air.

My experience, FYI , is that sooner or later you'll be growing undesirable green stuff in any electric humidifier.

Hey out there, read this!

Aye,
Marty

 

[ecfinn]

I limited my list to the following:

* Boil water on the stove in as many containers as will fit. (One good thing about my Lopi Revere is that even though its an insert I've got 10+ inches sticking out in front of the face of the fireplace and the top is flat.)
* Dry one load of clothes on racks in the living room (where stove is located)
* put up with it...

I'm happy if my humidity is >30% and ecstatic if its over 35%. That usually doesn't last long.

Eric

 

[slowzuki]

I smile and love it because I know the muggy, sickly sweatly humidity will be back all too soon. We are sitting at 12-20% RH the last month or so and it makes no difference showering without the fan on, boiling water or drying wood inside. It will soon be 90% so I'm not too worried.

 

[Goldfever69]

Howdie All

I am new here, from BC CANADA! EH!

I work at a pellet plant (Pinnacle Pellet Inc.) and I have two stoves in my house and one in my shop. I have to agree with the guys who brough up their fish tanks, and the clothes racks. I got 4 tanks in my small house and they evaporate fast. Also to add humidity and save money I got some real nice big wood drying racks for my wife to hang wet laundry on. We have 3 small children so you can imagine the amount of clothes we go through. My wife delints a bit in the dryer then hangs all the clothes, you can notice a major difference when she hangs up a bunch of washed towels. Besides that and because I get free pellets I open my doors wide open to let in some -40C air when my house gets too warm.

I am not sure how much affect all the plants in our house has on the air, but it must be doing something.

I also give my kids a bath every night, and that water stays in the tub till the next night! Maybe I am just to lazy to pull the plug, but I am sure that does wonders for our air.

Chow
Ryan

 

[colsmith]

We are fortunate that we can keep a pot of water on top of our wood stove, it's a front loader. That does an adequate job keeping the air moist. We always hung up all of our laundry in the house in the winter time. If we are in a hurry for the laundry to dry, we take the pot off the stove. Laundry a few feet from the stove dries in < 24 hours. We also have clear vases and gallon+ jars of water in a 'wall of water" on the hearth near the wood stove. A friend mistook it for decor, but it keeps the adjacent wall cooler, and adds more moisture. So if you can't put water on top of the stove, how about next to it?

(In non-freezing parts of the year the laundry goes outside, and the dehumidifier in the basement goes on.)

 

[Martin Strand III]

Late thought for low winter humidity inside:

Keep well hydrated.

If yur wet enough on the inside, the outside doesn't complain as much.

Aye,
Marty

 

[KarlP]

If you have maple trees, put in a half dozen maple taps. Every night put the sap in a large pot on the stove. In the morning you're a more than half way towards having syrup.

 

[kevinmoelk]

Goldfever mentioned it, but I have found plants to make a huge difference. I have a kettle on the stove, and I have 18 house plants. With only the kettle I float around 25% humidity. After I water the plants I'm at 35%. First year with the stove, and I've noticed a marked difference in the frequency of watering the plants. The stove I think even confuses the plants. I had two this winter that began to bloom! How's that for weird?

-Kevin

 

[reaperman]

Air to air exchanger, changes the inside air 6-8 times daily.

 

[Jake]

havent been doing anything... its taking a toll on my hardwood floors

 

[latichever]

First year with pellet stove. Humidity went down to the 20s. The only thing we care about is our Steinway grand, so we bought large wick evaporative humidifier for the piano room. It has raised the humidity to the mid 40s. The piano says its happy. We have ac for the summer, but our basement has dehumidifiers. One season we're pouring water out of a machine, the next season we're pouring water into a machine.