Humidity help

[Twentworth34]

Ok so i have lived another winter with dry air and now that I added another stove its unbearable. I have a small humidifier in my bedroom and cannot come close to keeping up. Any good recommendations on full size humidifiers? Both stoves are not vented outside air I was told don't bother but O am thinking how cars are with recirculated air and would it help to put an air intake in? Any other tips on keeping humidity in the house its awful! When will spring be here??

Thanks for the help

 

[Grisu]

Tighten up your home. Less outside air coming in will mean your indoor humidity will stay higher. Plus, you will save a bunch of pellets when losing less conditioned air to the outside. Check your local utility if they have an energy savings program. You may get an energy audit and blower door test for free.

 

[railfanron]

You need to put OAKS on those stoves. You're bringing cold air into the house at 30% humidity to use for combustion air. This air gets heated and expands which means it can hold a lot more moisture. So the end result is 70 degree air at 10% humidity. With outside air for combustion a lot less air comes into the house and also no air is used for combustion so the moisture level of the house is higher naturally. A humidifier is probably still needed but the amount of moisture it needs to put out is much less.
Ron

 

[Bioburner]

Now is the time to look for humidifiers as the season has pretty much ended. A large console type is probably the way to go.

 

[SidecarFlip]

+10 on the 2 above comments. You need outside air and a couple humidifiers. Wallyworld had the Honeywell/Sunveam ones on sale, I have 2 and they sure eliminate bloddy noses, cracked dry skin and me trying to electrocute my wife everytime I walk across the rug,

I buy my humidityfiers in the spring and my window air conditioners in the fall....

Get the kind with the replaceable wick filters and get the filters on Amazon.

 

[HOGG0494]

i had a honeywell 6900 quietcare for my living room and it worked great for the one room.if your looking to do a whole floor or even 2 floors i have a aircare decor does upto 2900 sqft. works great.quiet on low setting but a little loud on higher settings(but they all are)i highly recommend this one,and great price

http://www.homedepot.com/p/AIRCARE-...ve-Humidifier-for-2900-sq-ft-HD1409/204364015

 

[SidecarFlip]

i had a honeywell 6900 quietcare for my living room and it worked great for the one room.if your looking to do a whole floor or even 2 floors i have a aircare decor does upto 2900 sqft. works great.quiet on low setting but a little loud on higher settings(but they all are)i highly recommend this one,and great price

http://www.homedepot.com/p/AIRCARE-...ve-Humidifier-for-2900-sq-ft-HD1409/204364015

Your one is my two..... My issue is I have well water which is a big NO for any humidifier so I get city water from work in 7.5 gallon plastic RV water jugs and fill mine with that. I do the every other fay water pilgrimage all winter with four 7.5 gallon jugs (from Wallyworld).

Small price to pay for unblocked sinuses....

 

[HOGG0494]

i have very hard well water here.has not caused any problem with humidifier at all 2 years now,i just have to change the filter wickes more often.every 60 days instead of 120 days

 

[SidecarFlip]

Mine last maybe a week with the well water. I can get 3 months out of city water and it's at my work so I snitch the water...bad.

 

[Twentworth34]

I did the home energy audit. Have bot scheduled the air tightening procedure I am waiting for money to do everything and blown in insulation. Have to empty my attic first too :/. I was planning on doing the OAKS in the summer bc I heard they will even burn better. I will look into the brands recommended.
Thought my current one would handle it just not even close.

Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[Twentworth34]

Oh and I have a well so do I need a specific one for that so they dont produce the white dust and clog?

 

[HP52NOVA]

I would agree that the best solution is to tighten up your home. But from my experience, it can help, but will not solve the issue, especially if you have large house and a lot of wood (HW floors, etc.) I run an April air 800 steam humidifier coupled with my furnace air on automatic. it will adjust humidity to optimal, has frost protection and I don't need to touch it at all, outside once a year to replace the canister. its more $$, was certainly an investment, but its worth it. if you have smaller home, you may be ok with some of the evaporative whole home humidifiers. it also allowed me to drop the overall heating temp in the house due to the higher RH ratio, so over the 5 years I had it - I probably got my money back by now!

 

[Dr.Faustus]

i got the moistaire ma0800. got tired of filling it every day. I Rigged it with an auto fill valve and piped it to my RO filter under the sink. the setup is sweet! no more filling! and the water that goes in there is mostly free of anything that would foul the filter. Still needs to be changed periodically, just to be safe.

 

[Twentworth34]

Ya I do not have a furnace :/ just electric heat and electric hot water. I like the auto fill idea I was thinking of doing something like that but I do not know where i could place it close enough to a sink and get optimal performance :/. Filling it daily is definitely a huugggeee drawback. Thanks again

 

[crizpynutz]

I would also consider picking up an indoor humidity monitor if you don't have one. At the very least you can chart and track your actual humidity score in your house and they are cheap. At least you'll know exactly what you are dealing with.

http://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00613A1-Indoor-Humidity-Monitor/dp/B0013BKDO8/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

Most portable humidifiers are going to do one room, the one they are in, maybe a second room if you have an open floor plan. You can get multiple units and put them where you need them the most.

If you're house is just that awful, you could consider going all-in with a whole house humidifier system. A friend of mine has the Aprilaire 700 tapped into his ductwork and they love it.

http://www.amazon.com/Aprilaire-700...UTF8&qid=1427894254&sr=1-2&keywords=Aprilaire

Just some thoughts.

 

[HP52NOVA]

Ya I do not have a furnace :/ just electric heat and electric hot water. I like the auto fill idea I was thinking of doing something like that but I do not know where i could place it close enough to a sink and get optimal performance :/. Filling it daily is definitely a huugggeee drawback. Thanks again

you don't need the furnace, just the forced air ducted system and the blower. A whole house humidifier can tap into that and use the blower and duct system to humidify the house centrally.

 

[peirhead]

I'd suggest you install the OAK kits and use your existing humidifiers for a while, before spending more money on humidifiers.....
I'll bet the OAKs will solve most of your problems.