Humidification, What works for You?

[MDFisherman]

Hello All,

I was wondering what you are doing to add moisture to your house. What works and what doesn't really make a difference. I'm sure just about everyone has a pot on their stove with some water in it. How about spot humidifiers? Anyone having luck with a duct mounted humidifier in their central system to keep the RH up in their house?

Thanks all

 

[Bster13]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/humidifier-distributing-moisture.116313

 

[MDFisherman]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/humidifier-distributing-moisture.116313

Thanks

I didn't want to start up another topic on relative humidity and psychrometrics.

I am really looking for some people who actively humidify their house and the setup that they use. I set a large pot of water on top of the stove and a humidifier in the room with the stove and I see hardly any change in humidity. I also get tired of filling the humidifier. I have been thinking about getting a duct mounted humidifier and want to see if anyone else has tried this. ie running the fan without the furnace/heat pump on....

 

[JayD]

You can mount this behind a wall, I'm taking a hard look at it, bit pricy though. http://www.filtersfast.com/Trion-Herrmidifier-707U-Filter.asp

 

[mustash29]

Keep a cheap 12 qt stainless stock pot on the stove. It would cook off 2+ gal every 6-8 hrs. Once a season it gets a bath in muriatic acid for scale removal.

I also vent the clothes drier inside. Remove a small foil jumper hose between the dryer discharge pipe and the run that heads outside. Install an elbow on the dryer pipe with a pair of dead panty hose on the end of it. Replace panties monthly. This vented into my rec room where the stove was. Either via natural draft or when I had my little heat distribution blower running, it never got too humid down there with the dryer running as long as the stove was simmering or hotter. During shoulder season, we only dry laundry in the late evenings.

That heat distribution blower pumps into the master bath, keeping it toasty & the crapper seat warm too. It also moves the "shower moisture" out of the bathroom so we don't have to use the exhaust fan.

The disconnected dryer vent pipe serves as make up air to the stove room.

 

[Bster13]

Took a hygrometer to work yesterday and put it in our datacenter where we have ~real~ humidity monitoring tools and it was spot on. Took it home and the humidity settled at 35%. I told my wife if it drops below 30% we'll buy a humidifier and I'm leaning towards a smaller one now that I see other forum members using small ones for their entire house as opposed to these who house ones. Still not sure what the disconnect there is, but oh well.

 

[MDFisherman]

I spoke with a rep at aprilaire (http://www.aprilaire.com/) and he stated that at lower temperatures in the ductwork 80-90F the capacities are greatly reduced on their duct mounted humidifiers. They are really designed to run with a furnace running concurrently. With my ductwork located in the crawl space it adds another wrench in the mix with freezing possibilities.

With all that being said I am leaning toward a large console humidifier as the one below to keep in the room with the stove

http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Qui...TF8&qid=1383054523&sr=8-4&keywords=humidifier

 

[Bocephous]

I also vent the clothes drier inside.

I also do this, but have the vent hose attached to a plastic container holding water. The container has vents so that the air can escape, but the water traps the lint. I add water about once a week or so and clean as necessary.

 

[Soundchasm]

I can't consider any serious mods to the house, and the one gallon atomizers/steamers/etc just didn't cut it. The only thing I found that made a difference I can measure was one of the bigger fan/drum models. It probably holds two gallons in the fill container and another gallon in the pool in the bottom. I don't like a cold, wet breeze, but it's a necessary evil.

It will shut-off when it hits a humidity level, and you can run the fan on low speed (yet another fan running...).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VP7FWA/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I've come to believe that if I'm not throwing several gallons into the air a day that I can't get the result.

The two schools of thought is there's active (steam) and passive (evaporation). With too much steam, you can have condensation on the walls in theory, and with passive, no more water can evaporate into the air after a certain point.

When my moisture meter is reading 12-15%RH, I can increase it to 35-40%RH filling that Lasko twice a day. It's well worth it to keep the electric and acoustic guitars from truly misbehaving. And the heat sure feels better with the moisture in it.

 

[JoeyD]

I spoke with a rep at aprilaire (http://www.aprilaire.com/) and he stated that at lower temperatures in the ductwork 80-90F the capacities are greatly reduced on their duct mounted humidifiers. They are really designed to run with a furnace running concurrently. With my ductwork located in the crawl space it adds another wrench in the mix with freezing possibilities.

With all that being said I am leaning toward a large console humidifier as the one below to keep in the room with the stove

http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Qui...TF8&qid=1383054523&sr=8-4&keywords=humidifier

I have this humidifier and it does Ok. It is noisy though, not the motor but from vibration. I've wedged folded paper towels to help with this. Other then that it works well.

I also use this since I have well water. http://www.amazon.com/Holmes-S1705PDQ-U-Humidifier-Water-Treatment/dp/B0002TSA8S/ref=pd_sim_hg_16

 

[Ashful]

I set a large pot of water on top of the stove and... get tired of filling the humidifier.

Maybe you need to steal Fido's automatic water bowl filler rig, and install onto your stove pot.

 

[MDFisherman]

Maybe you need to steal Fido's automatic water bowl filler rig, and install onto your stove pot.

View attachment 116378

Thanks Joful,

But it looks like that one relies on gravity and I don't have a rain barrel on my roof...

So its time to pursue the Automatic Fill Valve

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We do keep some water on the stove but what really works is that my wife dries most of her laundry near the stove. Wow! Does that ever raise the humidity levels!

 

[burnt03]

I try to dry as much laundry on a couple racks in the stove room. Saves money on electricity and it seems to keep the humidity up too.