House Humidity

[BryanSchamber]

I need a little input from you well experienced wood burners. I put in a Heatmor OWB last year and ran everything through my forced air furnace. After suffering for a couple months last year with low humidity levels in the house, I invested in a humidifier that attached onto the forced air furnace. I think it must have been a waste of 400 dollars. Our humidity is hovering around 30-35%. Yes the filter has been cleaned several times and I even replaced with new filter. I do have well water, but run a good softener. I purchased a big whole house unit but the filter gets trashed in a week. Anyone have any luck with using anything with well water? I envy you guys that can just throw a pot on the stove. I don't think I have that option. Any input would greatly be appreciated. I did a search and didn't see much info.

 

[boostnut]

It's not what you're gonna want to hear but I think you bought the wrong type of humidifier. There are the cartridge style, which it sounds like you have, and a steam type. There are no filters with the steam units, just a heating element and steam tube that puts the moisture into your ductwork just downstream from your heat exchanger. Do a google search for steam humidifier or hvac steam humidifier, you'll have plenty to read. Although there is no filter to clean or replace the heating element will require some maintenance. You'll find buildup on it and will lose some performance as a result. A bath with CLR will keep it clean. A much better way to go than the filter/cartridge type.

 

[BryanSchamber]

Thanks for the reply. Your right, that is not what i wanted to hear but something has to be done. This cartridge/filter style has plenty of water going through it, unfortunetly it is getting pumped out the over-flow instead of in the house where it is neaded. I will do some looking. thanks

 

[ktm250rider]

Same situation here. Check out doityourself.com under the plumbing section. Theres tons of reading on humidifiers. I had cold water running to mine and due to the layout of the air handler, I had to mount it to the return duct and run a duct to the supply. It would hold 40% when it was in the mid to upper 30's but dropped to under 30% when it got cold. Someone suggested that I hook it up to hot waterand that seems to have help. Still, its not what I expected. Perhaps a steam unit would have been the better choice as well.

 

[ktm250rider]

Oh, and we just got our electric bill. Looks like an extra 70 bucks to run the humidifier non stop during Dec:jawdrop:.

 

[BryanSchamber]

I'm not real excited about seeing the electric bill either. What really ticks me off more than anything is when you get burned by a so called professional HVAC technician. I'm looking into the steam units as we speak. Kids and wife are dried out and getting bloody noses. Not to mention the amount of water this thing is pushing. I know my salt tank is getting low more often.

 

[BryanSchamber]

Anyone have any thougts on the Honeywell true steam units?

 

[ericjeeper]

Just set pans of water on all the floor registers in the house.

 

[Suz]

My well water is so hard that fish get tired swimming in it and it would screw up humidifier filters in our floor model in about 3 weeks. The filters will get caked with lime even when using softened water. At $15 a pop for the filters, I got tired paying for a useless unit that really couldn't keep the humidity up where we wanted it.
Last winter I noticed that our cheap $15 Vicks hot steam vaporizer dumped a lot of water in the air in just a little time. So, we bought another and now I have one running on each floor that each will put about a gallon of water into the air in about 3 hours. Another advantage of these units they are quiet. NO fan to listen to!!
No more complaints from the wife or Granddaughter about having stuffed up noses, headaches, and I have moisture on the bottoms of the window glass during this cold weather. (Yes they are newer double pane windows.)

 

[Storm56]

I use two floor models. Filters last about 3 months. House was built in 2007 and is very well insulated, so as it gets colder I have to lower the levels or suffer with condensation on windows. So above 30 degrees about 40 % humidity, 20-30 degrees about 35%, below 20 and I need to stay about 30%.

I actually have it down pat now with the settings on the humidifiers that it is almost self regulating. We have no issues at these levels and the windows only get mild condensation when the temps go below about 15 degrees.

 

[savageactor7]

Byran besides a pot on the stove, we hang laundry inside, have a small working water fountain that needs water every day and have many house plants to water.

Don't get discouraged with your humidifier. It's almost impossible imo to change rel humidity numbers significantly in an older house.

However without our constant water therapy interventions the consequences of doing nothing would be noticed immediately. Sever static shocks, post nasal drip/sore throat and eyes...I'm not even getting into furniture damage.

Just because you can't raise the RH# doesn't mean it's not working. We also have hard water from a well and use bottled water for our indoor decorative fountain and for cleaning the stove window. I'd use bottled water in that humidifier if I were you and consider getting a vaporizer if you wanted to escalate your quest for increased humidity.

 

[BryanSchamber]

I thought about setting pans of water on registers. I don't think my 3 year old needs another adventure. You wouldn't believe the money wasted on humidifiers. Even when I ran propane it was dry. We have been using a vicks vaporizor at night. been using a gallon a night. The newer floor model that has a filter was noisy and it held 4 gallons of water.The filter would last two weeks if I was lucky. I'm not a tight wad but could'nt imagine dumping bottled water in that thing. I appreciate everyones input. Yes it is an older home, but has been completely gutted and all new windows put in. This problem has become bigger than heating or cooling the place. Just looking for a practical cost effective solution before dumping another ton of money in a helpless attempt to make everyone comfortable.

 

[BryanSchamber]

I forgot something. Yes this humidifier is working on the furnace, just dumping water down the drain and not getting it to the house where we need it.

 

[savageactor7]

Well here's something that won't hurt a 3 yo, inexpensive and fun for a child to maintain. It's a small lighted table fountain that's helps add water to the air. About $20 in the home decor section of WarMart or Lowes.

 

[BryanSchamber]

That's pretty neat. Thanks for the pic.

 

[reaperman]

Have you checked into a air to air exchanger? Since you already have an existing HVAC system in place, it would just need to be plumbed into that. I'm not sure of the cost of having one installed, but its always cheaper if you can install it yourself. I believe the unit itself I have in my home was around $600, about 3 1/2 years ago when I built. I didn't't do the install, it was done by the builders HVAC guy.

You will have to do some reading on the subject, but they have the capability to change the air in the home about 5 times/day, depending on which setting you choose. If your no different than the rest of us woodburners, you will be burning for years to come, so a long term solution is what you are looking for. Its a building code in our state to have one installed on new construction, as well as other states I have to think. With the new homes being build "tight", they do have a hard time breathing. And it is nice to have fresh air being brought into the home consistently.

Again, you will have to do some homework on the subject or talk to a heating professional. Their main function isnt necessarily to bring humidity into a home, but to exchange the air. But with fresh air being brough into the home on a constant basis, it really doesn't have much chance to "dry out". Inside the exchanger, the warm home air being exhausted outside, passes with the fresh, cooler air, being brought into the home and is suppose to warm the incoming air as they both pass through a filter, without actually coming into contact with each other. Overall, its probably the best thing going for getting rid of that "stale" winter air and providing a constant supply of fresh clean air into a home.

 

[bwmcintyre]

We added a larger floor unit this year, after trying to keep up with a water pot on the stove. Got tired of dry mouth and noses that ran throughout the winter.

The unit we picked up holds 6.5 gallons, and I have it sitting out by the stove to help stir the warmer air. So far it's held 40-45% humidity upstairs. It's been better to wake up not being so dry in the mornings!

 

[BryanSchamber]

Never really thought of a whole house air exchanger. My wife does that a couple of times a week by opening some windows for an hour or so. Will look into that. Thanks.

 

[Bcat22]

we had the same issue in our house until two months ago. i know this is gonna sound odd, but turn down the set-points on your wood burner. we tried everything, and in the end all i had to do was lower my stoves set points from 160->170 to 150->155. this keeps your HX a little cooler, so it does not eat as much of the moisture, and i lets the blower run longer, circulating more air through the humidifier. my house still stays plenty warm (73) and my DHW is plenty hot too. In fact, i have found that i use a little less wood this way too.
just my two cents worth...

 

[BryanSchamber]

That may work with smaller square footage. I have two large holes cut in upstairs floor so radiant heat will get upstairs. If I don't have boiler set at 185 in this cold and thermostat inside on 74-75 the upstairs won't make it to 70. I'ts nice upstairs for kids sleeping at 68-70 degrees, but mom and I are cooking downstairs.