House Humidity

[BlueRidgeMark]

What really ticks me off more than anything is when you get burned by a so called professional HVAC technician.

HVAC people who actually know anything are rare birds. Think about it - how much does that kind of work pay? Think you are going to attract the cream of the crop?

If you find a good one, hang on to him!

 

[kielbasa]

I have an air exchanger in my home to keep the moisture out - outside winter air is dry (typically) - my home is so tight I need to exchange all the moisture laden air.
Especially with the Christmas tree now, the two pitchers of water have to go somewhere. If I let the wood furnace run out and it cools off to around 60~65 degF (and the air exchanger isn't running), I'm wiping all the condensate off my window panes.
So I guess my point is, an air exchanger might do you harm, or nothing if the house is porous enough.

 

[BryanSchamber]

I'm going to explore all options before i throw more money away. It is an older home and although we've completely remodeled, it's drafty at times. I could see where an air to air exchanger would be needed in new construction. Just don't know if that is my best option. Will do some investigating. Thanks for the input.

 

[showrguy]

I have an air exchanger in my home to keep the moisture out - outside winter air is dry (typically) - my home is so tight I need to exchange all the moisture laden air.
Especially with the Christmas tree now, the two pitchers of water have to go somewhere. If I let the wood furnace run out and it cools off to around 60~65 degF (and the air exchanger isn't running), I'm wiping all the condensate off my window panes.
So I guess my point is, an air exchanger might do you harm, or nothing if the house is porous enough.

he's exactly right.......... click on the weather channel and see what the humidity is right now..
it changes, but is constantly low humidity in winter time....
low humidity outside dries your house out too !!!!!

 

[Wirenut2266]

HVAC people who actually know anything are rare birds. Think about it - how much does that kind of work pay? Think you are going to attract the cream of the crop?

If you find a good one, hang on to him!

Blueridge: Wow, your kinda hard on the fellas? What does pay have to do with knowledge, Nothing!!! To me you just pissed a few hard working fellas off!!!

 

[mbrau]

try hooking the water supply up to hot water if not done already

 

[Bcat22]

i also had the problem of the upstairs not staying warm, and i still keep my thermostat set at 73/74. turning down the OWB temps means the HVAC system will run longer, circulating more air into the upstairs of the house. right now i'm heating 3,200 Square feet this way. i'm in my third year with the OWB and i can say that the last few months, since turning down the temps, have been the happiest the wife and i have been. last winter we had to put space heaters in the kids bedrooms upstairs and set the thermostat on 75 to keep warm. here are the changes I made to fix my humidity issue and the cool upstairs issue.
1. installed in line humidifier (didn't work alone)
2. turned down the boiler temps (helped A LOT on the humidity)
3. closed the register vents in the room with the thermostat ( keeps the rest of the house warmer as well)
4. bought magnetic grate covers to block several of the return air vents in the downstairs (makes the furnace pull return air from upstairs)

we have a new house, but the HVAC system that was installed is a mess, its something i have been slowly working on.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Blueridge: Wow, your kinda hard on the fellas? What does pay have to do with knowledge, Nothing!!! To me you just pissed a few hard working fellas off!!!

Sorry about the reality check. Hard working has nothing to do with knowledge. PAY has a LOT to do with it. I know a lot of very hard working people who are unintelligent, uneducated, and (sadly) proud of it.

On the other hand, I know a lot of very educated, very intelligent people who are lazy.

Given the choice, I prefer to hang around with the hardworking, unintelligent, uneducated types.

But when I need to hire somebody for their knowledge of a complex subject, I really prefer someone who is intelligent and educated (even if self taught). The problem is, those kind of people usually want to be paid well, and so they aren't attracted to low-wage occupations. (You maybe have noticed that doctors get paid more than construction laborers?)

For the most part, you get what you pay for.

 

[aokpops]

try a few bamboo plants .about the only that grow.s in our house .everything else die.s .got aluminum pot full of water that we kept the furance.

 

[reaperman]

he's exactly right.......... click on the weather channel and see what the humidity is right now..
it changes, but is constantly low humidity in winter time....
low humidity outside dries your house out too !!!!!

I can tell you your home humidity in the winter will never even come close the the outside humidity in the winter time. The chart below is good example of the outside humidity today so far since midnight and updated every ten minutes since. These reading are directly from my weather station at my home which is uploaded to the wundrground. http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMNRICE1

You will find the humidity in the second to the last column

Tabular Data for January 4, 2010
Time, Temp. Dew Point, Pressure, Wind Wind Humidity

00:02 -23.2 °F -30.9 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
00:12 -23.9 °F -31.3 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:22 -24.2 °F -31.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:32 -24.2 °F -31.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:42 -24.2 °F -31.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:52 -24.6 °F -32.3 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:00 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:02 -24.9 °F -32.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:12 -24.9 °F -32.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:22 -25.3 °F -32.9 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:32 -25.3 °F -33.2 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
01:42 -26.0 °F -33.6 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:52 -26.0 °F -33.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:02 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:12 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:22 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:32 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:42 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:52 -26.0 °F -33.9 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
03:00 -27.7 °F -35.8 °F 30.55in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
03:02 -26.0 °F -33.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
03:12 -27.0 °F -35.1 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
03:22 -27.0 °F -34.8 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
03:32 -27.7 °F -35.8 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
03:42 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
03:52 -27.0 °F -34.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
04:02 -27.3 °F -35.4 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
04:12 -27.3 °F -35.1 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
04:22 -27.3 °F -35.4 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
04:32 -27.7 °F -35.8 °F 30.55in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
04:42 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.55in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
04:52 -28.0 °F -36.1 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
05:00 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
05:02 -28.4 °F -36.7 °F 30.56in Calm 1.0mph 63% 0.00in
05:12 -28.7 °F -36.7 °F 30.56in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
05:22 -28.7 °F -36.7 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
05:32 -29.0 °F -37.3 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 63% 0.00in
05:42 -28.7 °F -36.5 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
05:52 -28.4 °F -36.2 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:02 -28.0 °F -35.8 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:12 -28.0 °F -36.1 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
06:22 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:32 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:42 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:52 -28.0 °F -36.1 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
07:00 -26.3 °F -33.9 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:02 -28.4 °F -36.5 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
07:12 -28.4 °F -36.5 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
07:22 -28.4 °F -35.9 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:32 -27.7 °F -35.2 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:42 -27.0 °F -34.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:52 -26.6 °F -34.2 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:02 -26.3 °F -33.9 °F 30.60in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:12 -26.6 °F -34.2 °F 30.60in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:22 -26.6 °F -34.2 °F 30.60in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:32 -26.3 °F -33.9 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:41 -25.6 °F -33.0 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in

 

[gwiley]

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

I was thinking the same thing. Small metal bowls would work well.

 

[wdchuck]

An aquarium with the lid off, will add warm moisture to the air, and the kids love it.

We use a floor model for the whole house, and on high fan, it'll go through 10 gallons in 24 hours, the humidity will be in the high 40's to low 50's.
The one drawback.....LOUD.

Keeping the fan in a tolerable sound range will keep the humidity in the high 30's to low 40's.

Good luck with this, when you find a working solution, report back with the details.

 

[BryanSchamber]

Will do. Right now I have turned the temp down on the boiler and am experimenting with closing off registers. Trying to get heat upstairs. Humidity in house came up a couple to 30%. Got a ways to go.

 

[Mr. Obvious]

My solution for winter humidity

I looked into all the options a few years ago since i live in a log cabin which is very dry when runnig the VC woodstove all winter. My propane furnace stays off and I don't want to run the furnace fan either to move air/humidity around. Electric bill is already way too high.


The best units I found (steam generators) are room humidifiers most people don't even know about such as these:

http://www.generalaire.com/catalog/categories/655-Room_Steam_Humidifiers

You plumb a water and drain line to them and 120 or 240 volts and they dump lots of steam out into your room. They put out many gallons per day (up to 20 +). They are much more sophisticated than the water heater element types that go on the ductwork. I almost spent the 1000 bucks to get one until I figured what the electric would cost me to run it.

All of the electric heating element humidifiers that go in the furnace duct or those like I linked above put out a lot of water but they really suck the Electrons. Figure out how much they will cost in electricity plus the cost to buy and install and its not worth it.

The pan on the woodstove or furnace vents is really silly unless a gallon or 2 a day is all you want. You put out more water by exhaling than a pan on the woodstove will.

As far as the room vaporizers and cheap steamers/ultrasonic room humidifiers that walmart and target sell I tried them to. They put out a decent amount of water but you need them in every room. Also It is a real pain having to fill them all up several times a day since each one only holds a gallon or two. The biggest problem with these cheap room types that throw the water droplets or vapor mist in the air is that whatever is in the water also gets thrown in the air. Unless you have distilled water you will find after a few days white dust everywhere in the room from either the hardness in the water or the salt from the water softener. More of a mess to clean up the dust then the humidity you get from them


What I found to be the best and cheapest solution was the console type humidifiers that sears sells or similar ones at lowes. They put out about 10-14 gallons per day max. I found one unit per floor running on high doesn't get the H2o spread out to all the rooms on a floor (even with the furnace fan on) and on high they use about 330+watts. So I put 2 per floor spread out and run them on the lower setting. On the lower setting they use less watts ( less than 100, I have a kilowatt meter). Two consoles on low uses less watts than 1 on high and the humidity is way better distributed and you don't need to fill them as often.

The other huge benefit is since they evaporate the water you don't have the white dust everywhere in the house constantly. The minerals are trapped on the evaporative filters which you do need to replace. I'd rather have them on the filter than on the floor, TV, furniture etc. I buy 1 set a winter, 2 max. However you can try to clean them if you want. Hot tub stores and places like that sell filter cleaning chemicals which are supposed to help dissolve the minerals and clean the filters used in hot tubs and pools. I just buy new ones.

I got lucky since we HAD a sears repair center in town and the damaged goods would be sold there. Even if only the box was damaged sears would not sell the item retail. I picked up 3 for about 1/2 price or less over a year or two, usually in the spring. One I paid full retail price for (about $149). Thanks to the economy crashing sears shut it down in May. No more good deals for me.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03215420000P?keyword=humidifier

Now they are 179. 2 years ago they were 149 regular price.

I picked up one of these below for less than $80 2 years ago at the sears repair and have it in the kids bedroom.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03215412000P?keyword=humidifier

 

[wkpoor]

I can tell you your home humidity in the winter will never even come close the the outside humidity in the winter time. The chart below is good example of the outside humidity today so far since midnight and updated every ten minutes since. These reading are directly from my weather station at my home which is uploaded to the wundrground. http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMNRICE1

You will find the humidity in the second to the last column

Tabular Data for January 4, 2010
Time, Temp. Dew Point, Pressure, Wind Wind Humidity

00:02 -23.2 °F -30.9 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
00:12 -23.9 °F -31.3 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:22 -24.2 °F -31.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:32 -24.2 °F -31.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:42 -24.2 °F -31.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in
00:52 -24.6 °F -32.3 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:00 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:02 -24.9 °F -32.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:12 -24.9 °F -32.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:22 -25.3 °F -32.9 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:32 -25.3 °F -33.2 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
01:42 -26.0 °F -33.6 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
01:52 -26.0 °F -33.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:02 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:12 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:22 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:32 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:42 -25.6 °F -33.2 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
02:52 -26.0 °F -33.9 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
03:00 -27.7 °F -35.8 °F 30.55in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
03:02 -26.0 °F -33.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
03:12 -27.0 °F -35.1 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
03:22 -27.0 °F -34.8 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
03:32 -27.7 °F -35.8 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
03:42 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
03:52 -27.0 °F -34.6 °F 30.56in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
04:02 -27.3 °F -35.4 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
04:12 -27.3 °F -35.1 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
04:22 -27.3 °F -35.4 °F 30.55in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
04:32 -27.7 °F -35.8 °F 30.55in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
04:42 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.55in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
04:52 -28.0 °F -36.1 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
05:00 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
05:02 -28.4 °F -36.7 °F 30.56in Calm 1.0mph 63% 0.00in
05:12 -28.7 °F -36.7 °F 30.56in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
05:22 -28.7 °F -36.7 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
05:32 -29.0 °F -37.3 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 63% 0.00in
05:42 -28.7 °F -36.5 °F 30.57in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
05:52 -28.4 °F -36.2 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:02 -28.0 °F -35.8 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:12 -28.0 °F -36.1 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 64% 0.00in
06:22 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.58in Calm 1.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:32 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:42 -27.7 °F -35.5 °F 30.57in Calm 0.0mph 65% 0.00in
06:52 -28.0 °F -36.1 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
07:00 -26.3 °F -33.9 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:02 -28.4 °F -36.5 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
07:12 -28.4 °F -36.5 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 64% 0.00in
07:22 -28.4 °F -35.9 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:32 -27.7 °F -35.2 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:42 -27.0 °F -34.6 °F 30.58in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
07:52 -26.6 °F -34.2 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:02 -26.3 °F -33.9 °F 30.60in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:12 -26.6 °F -34.2 °F 30.60in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:22 -26.6 °F -34.2 °F 30.60in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:32 -26.3 °F -33.9 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 66% 0.00in
08:41 -25.6 °F -33.0 °F 30.59in Calm 0.0mph 67% 0.00in

I think you are a little missinformed. The air outside is much drier even though the humidity is high because humidity is relative to temperature. Thats why its referred to as relative humidity. Minus 20 something air at 90% humidity would still be very very dry air because it can't hold any water vapor at that low temp.

 

[Bcat22]

so now that you've experimented, how the humidity/ even heat thing going?

 

[BryanSchamber]

Well i turned the boiler down and I am seeing the heat regulated through-out the house better. The upstairs temps. are up about 3-4 degrees. Unfortunately the RH has not come up but a couple % to 32-33. I have cleaned filter on humidifier on ductwork and have good water flow. After talking with several and researching I feel that putting the steam system humidifier on ductwork might be best solution. I could get my large room humidifier out but the cost of filters quickly adds up. thanks for the input. I have noticed a decrease in wood usage also.