Humidity

[freeburn]

Related to humidity in house in winter with a wood furnace :

I have a furnace fan w/ filter that pulls air right out of the basement (not hooked up to cold air return) and blows through ductwork in warm air side of the plenum.

Anyone ever tried setting a pan of water in front of the furnace fan to draw air across the pan of water thus blowing humidity through the ductwork. Does that work to increase humidity in the house? Anyone done anything else besides setting a kettle of water on the top of the stove? My furnace box doesn't get hot enough to cause the water to evaporate fast enough. Any other ideas or low/free cost alternatives to keeping humidity up in house when burning wood?

 

[LLigetfa]

Furnace humidifiers get installed in the cold air return duct and while some models have a line that takes from the warm side, warm air is not needed to evaporate the water. If you have a blower drawing cold air, you could install a humidifier in such a way as to draw air across it.

I have a centrifugal blower that draws cold air, blowing it to the stove but haven't rigged up a humidifier as there is no drain near where my fireplace blower intake is. When I need to humidify, I just turn on my furnace blower for a while as it has a humidifier.

 

[Jimbob]

Any other ideas or low/free cost alternatives to keeping humidity up in house when burning wood?

Yeah. Seal up any leaky doors and windows. Cold, dry air is what lowers indoor humidity. Also consider adding an outside air supply to the stove to raise household humidity.