Whole House Humidifier

[hondaracer2oo4]

I have a forced hot air system in the house. Every winter around this time the humidity really drops down and the house feels cold even though I run it at 70 during the day and 66 at night. The humidity level on my little indoor thermometer says 20% humidity. I looked up what that equals for a 'Real Feel' or Heat index and at 70 degrees that feels like 66-68 and at 66 it feels like 62-63 so its not wonder why it feels chilly in the house even when warm. My question is does anyone have any thoughts on whole house humidifiers that run off the forced hot air system and any suggestions on a good model?

 

[Zkx14]

I have a Honeywell HE220A. Keep it set around 50%. Even when I am heating with wood, the air system is on circulate. Don't have anything to read what the house is actually at, but it seems to keep the wife happy.

 

[DougA]

Not quite what you are looking for but I'm running a cheap $25. humidifier in the room the stove is in and it has made a world of difference.
Your stove is drying the air in the stove's room, then pulling the moisture from the rest of the house. If you keep the moisture up in the stove room, it should work. Just a thought for a quick, cheap way of doing it.

 

[Zkx14]

Even cheaper... Before I installed my central air system, I kept a pot of water on top of the stove. Still have an old teakettle that I use occasionally for that purpose.

 

[Babaganoosh]

I've got a honeywell but not sure of the model. I have it set to turn on every 2 hours and read the humidity and then add if necessary. It's always necessary because my house is not tight at all and before I had it the humidity got down to as low as 5%. It keeps it around 29% in here and occasionally it gets into the 30s which still isn't technically enough but it is a huge improvement. I had little options as to where to place the sensor and control unit, it's in a bad spot, if it was placed better it would probably read correctly.

I'd say it's worth it. Much better than putting portable humidifiers everwhere.

 

[hondaracer2oo4]

I have a hydro-air forced air system. I do have woodstock soap stone stove but only run it in the shoulder seasons. The hydro-air system is much better than scorched hot air but the humidity is still very low.

 

[lexybird]

Wood heat is hard On humidity levels especially a forced air wood heat appliance .

 

[maple1]

Wood heat shouldn't really be much harder on humidity levels than another heat source. Or forced air. Neither one would exhaust humidity outside of the house more than others. Chances are if you're low with a wood furnace, you'd be low with an oil one too.

 

[Zkx14]

Its not the heat source that dries the air. The air is drier outside in winter cause cold air can't hold the moisture. Wood heat can seem much drier, depending on your stove. If you are drawing a lot of air into the stove, you are pulling that much low humidity air in from outside. And, sucking the higher humidity air already inside right out the chimney. Usually this is far more than a typical oil burner that hopefully does not run 24/7 as some on here run there stoves. Years ago when we used a Voglezang wood pig that gulped air, our house was REALLY dry. Of course that air being sucked in is also cold, so you need even more heat to make up for it.

 

[Bad LP]

Have 7 Truesteam units from Honeywell with the RO water systems installed in 6 fan coil units and one in a central air only system. Steam is great when they work. Had a bunch of issues with them and I now understand they changed them once again but I don't know what they did. If I was doing it over I would avoid these units but I have thousands invested in them so I'm kinda stuck at this point in time.

April Air has some ultrasonic units out that I heard good things about.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Seeing our house is not all that tight we too have issues with low humidity in winter. Warm air holds MUCH more water than cold air does. The larger the temp differential between inside and outside means the more pressure you will have from your warmer air trying to escape to the colder air. When you have warm inside air escaping this will pull in colder/drier air from the outside, as the house won't become a vacuum. This cold air entering is what drops your humidity levels in the winter. We put 5+ gallons of water in the house a day with our humidifier and could probably even do more, as it runs out midday. This keeps the house right around 30-35% relative humidity. In real cold weather it drops to 25-30%, even when putting 5 gallons into the air a day. You don't want it too high in really cold weather though as your windows will start to frost up.

Here's a link which explains relative humidity and gives you a chart for recommended humidity levels based on outside temps:

https://www.aprilaire.com/docs/defa...ibrary/relative-humidity-defined.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Below is the one we have:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/AIRCARE-5-Gal-Evaporative-Humidifier-for-4-000-sq-ft-EA1407/205446600

 

[joes169]

I have a Honeywell "HE120" attached to the cold air return of my wood furnace. It's just a simple flow-through style. It's attached to the water supply, so theres' no "babysitting".






It has a simple dial that sit's upstream in the cold air return making it very easy to set. I have 2 temp/humidity guages in the house to keep an eye on it. I usually try to keep it between 30-40% for the winter, a little higher as it gets warmer. The humidifier has no problem keeping the humidity up, even when it's below zero for days.

 

[hondaracer2oo4]

Thanks for everyones help so far. I think I am leaning pretty heavy towards the Aprilaire 600 with digital controller. The Digital controller takes the outside air temp, the inside humidity levels and adjusts it accordingly. Looks like not baby sitting once you are up and running.

 

[JRHAWK9]

I also have an April Aire system attached to the warm air supply (warm air holds more moisture) of my wood furnace. I just don't use it that much and prefer the fan noise of the Aircare when we sleep.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Thanks for everyones help so far. I think I am leaning pretty heavy towards the Aprilaire 600 with digital controller. The Digital controller takes the outside air temp, the inside humidity levels and adjusts it accordingly. Looks like not baby sitting once you are up and running.

That's the way I wired up our April Aire. You have different settings you can set it at based on outside temp.

 

[stee6043]

Thanks for everyones help so far. I think I am leaning pretty heavy towards the Aprilaire 600 with digital controller. The Digital controller takes the outside air temp, the inside humidity levels and adjusts it accordingly. Looks like not baby sitting once you are up and running.

I have this system, installed it last year. Easy install, solid unit. I've been quite pleased with the "auto setback" feature as well. If the temp drops rapidly you can still get some condensation on your windows but overall it does a great job of modulating humidity with outside air temp.

I keep mine at the second highest setting (I think it's 6) and it'll hold pretty close to 50%. It'll drop closer to 40% when it's particularly cold outside...