How to keep moisture in the air?

[grunyon]

Riding out the blizzard in New Jersey. Air is exceptionally dry in here. The thermostat says I'm down to 23% indoor humidity. Any tips on making this not so? I've got a kettle on the stove and it's steaming but I'm still drying out like a raisin in here. Thanks for your help!

 

[jetsam]

I am running a big water boiling humidifier in the stove room and a small air filtering one in the bedroom. Make sure you get a model with a humidistat so you don't get things too wet. (The Venta doesn't need one because it depends mostly on evaporation to get water into the air, so it humidifies less as the air gets moister.) I like the ones that boil water because there's no wicks to replace and it is a tiny bit of supplemental heat (plus I like the noise).

 

[pen]

One of these does about 1000sqft fine for me. I replace the filters once a year and put in a touch of some sort of humidifier water additive that prevents bacterial growth / mold etc..... http://www.amazon.com/Vornado-Evap3...=1453585480&sr=8-1&keywords=vortex+humidifier

here's the additive http://www.amazon.com/BestAir-3BT-6...201_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0NTGETZ6VZJ45MTGG5GQ A jug of the stuff lasts a little more than a season for me.

I've had this unit for 2 years now and am fairly happy with it. The bright LED's on it are a bit too much, and it doesn't shut off when empty, but in all I'm pleased and like it much better than the one I ran for 7 years that had "permanent" filters and was much more money.

 

[westkywood]

I use a humidifier. I don't run it 24-7. When my shirts start getting static in them and when I get shocked every time I touch the stove, I run the humidifier. On average I'll run it every other day or so. I have an OAK on my stove which is suppose to reduce humidity problems and I believe it does. Setting something on the stove just doesn't put out enough H2O.

 

[iluvjazznjava]

I live in a low humidity area. I have a humidifier attached to my natural gas furnace. I helps, but I still run a couple of free standing Honeywell humidifiers when I use my fireplace or on exceptionally dry days. I bought them on a 50% off sale a couple years ago and they have worked well. Biggest pain is refilling the water reservoirs, but that's typically only a couple times a week. My woodstove has an OAK, so it doesn't affect indoor humidity much. Is your house exceptionally leaky?

 

[JA600L]

Dry your laundry on a rack, don't run the fan when taking showers, bring wet wood into the stove room, etc..

 

[madison]

Search "Essick Air" whole house humidifiers

 

[xman23]

I don't waist time keeping a pot of water on the stove. A evaporative humidifier puts gallons of water into the air, with a fan.

 

[crater22]

Anybody have a link to a site that shows what the recommended humidity should be in the house?

 

[DUMF]

Don't know about you, but the home CEO says : " NO indoor drying racks in MY place. What's wrong with our clotheslines ? "
I do obey .

 

[allan5oh]

You don't want too much humidity in a house during winter. That being said sealing up your house will help tremendously as well as drawing in outside air for anything with a flue.

 

[Round Stove Guy]

I have quite a few house plants. I have to water them more in the winter but I get so much more than just more humidity in the air from having house plants. I also like to use snow melted for watering them, the plants seem to like it more than tap water.

 

[laynes69]

We used to run a humidifier in the house throughout the winter. What I've realized was the drafter our home, the drier the air. Since we've tightened up our home, the humidity has remained at a good level with no additional humidification needed. We had too many air exchanges per hour in our home.

 

[Dmitry]

Anybody have a link to a site that shows what the recommended humidity should be in the house?

You can buy thermometer at lowes that shows temperature, humidity and and indicates if relative humidity is OK, high or low for giving temperature , very convenient. and it shows max and min past values. it is cheap
http://www.lowes.com/pd_744231-1308-00325___?productId=50425254&pl=1&Ntt=thermometers

I got this one , $9

 

[Dmitry]

And I use this one to keep moisture at certain level.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_484759-12934-IHUM-10-140_1z0wmr1__?productId=4777918&pl=1

It is big but has high tech look that my wife doesn't hate, you can program humidity level. And it moves some air around

P.S.:I'm not endorsing Lowes, it's just nearby.

 

[allan5oh]

You can buy thermometer at lowes that shows temperature, humidity and and indicates if relative humidity is OK, high or low for giving temperature , very convenient. and it shows max and min past values. it is cheap
http://www.lowes.com/pd_744231-1308-00325___?productId=50425254&pl=1&Ntt=thermometers

I got this one , $9
View attachment 173073

Does it also grab outdoor temperature? Without that it is useless. You must have less humidity in the house during winter or you will have condensation issues on your windows, inside your walls, in your flues, and other issues. Houses up here usually have 25-35% in the middle of winter. In fact it is now mandatory to have HRVs in all new homes. As homes got more efficient mold issues kept getting worse and worse because humidity wasn't leaving the house like it would with older drafty houses with natural gas furnaces grabbing indoor air. Here's a chart:



I would say 15% is very low, but you get the idea. Read this.

 

[Dmitry]

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

Got this one for outdoor temperature, But it does not show if relative humidity is OK, or LOW, or HIgh

 

[jetsam]

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

Got this one for outdoor temperature, But it does not show if relative humidity is OK, or LOW, or HIgh

The second and fourth numbers on the display are indoor and outdoor RH.

 

[Dmitry]

The second and fourth numbers on the display are indoor and outdoor RH.

I mean it doesn't show if humidity level is optimal. The other one calculates if humidity is good for given temperature.

 

[pen]

I mean it doesn't show if humidity level is optimal. The other one calculates if humidity is good for given temperature.

Mine doesn't either. But I know if mine starts reading below 30% and I don't do something about it, I'll have a dear lady friend dealing with daily nose bleeds.

I have no clue if that gauge is accurate, but do know what happens in this house if I don't keep the moisture above what that thing says is 30%.

If I felt like being really ocd, I could pull my old sling psychrometer out (filled with mercury) and get more accurate readings, but who cares so long as the "easy" tool lets me know when we need to start to worry.

Point to all of this is that many people focus on an exact number for many areas of concern, whether it be humidity, stove top or pipe temp, etc, when what is appropriate might vary based upon the measuring device or individual needs.

For certain things, playing around to find what woks well for a particular situation is fine, and necessary.

 

[Dmitry]

30% is my number too, humidifier is set on 30 at all times

 

[eujamfh]

We use cast iron stove top things but also a large Honeywell humidifier. Its a four gallon unit and we run it dry within a 24 hour period, sometimes even more. We heat the whole house with two stoves and have a lot of square footage and the stove top units are simply not enough. Wood heat is dry and as other commented, if the house isn't tight, then you are always going to fight the dry air. We set the humidity at 35% and it rarely stops in the winter. Its a wicking type set up - we have a water softener and the ionizing units we originally used put out too much white dust so we found it better to simply replace the wick one a month or so with the large console model.

 

[billb3]

I have quite a few house plants. I have to water them more in the winter but I get so much more than just more humidity in the air from having house plants. I also like to use snow melted for watering them, the plants seem to like it more than tap water.

View attachment 173052 View attachment 173051

If your tap water is municipal treated water, treated with chemicals to counter the biological contaminants typically found in stored and piped water, can you blame them ?

 

[firefighterjake]

If your tap water is municipal treated water, treated with chemicals to counter the biological contaminants typically found in stored and piped water, can you blame them ?

Could be worse . . . could be watering the plants with water from Flint, Michigan.

 

[edyit]

Could be worse . . . could be watering the plants with water from Flint, Michigan.

not to derail this completely, but as the head of our water dept. here i'm at a complete and utter loss as to how they let that problem get as bad as it did...