What is the best type of humidifer for a residential home?
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How old? - Where located? -Type of heat?
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The furnance is 10 years old, mid efficiency, forced air, gas fired, located in the basement and venting out through the attic.
Jim
I'd say none. Go to your attic, foam seal all the air leaks where the drywall meets the top plates, holes in the top plate for hvac, plumbing or wiring (dirty FG is an indicator of an air leak), attic stairs and whole house fans without an airtight box around them, recessed lights, anywhere that inside air can leak outside. Do you have any ducts in the attic? Are they sealed with mesh tape and mastic? Regular duct tape is good for a lot, but oddly, not for sealing ducts. Is there an air handler in the attic? Build an airtight room around it.
If your house leaks conditioned air to the outside, unconditioned air must replace it. In the winter, that's dry air, and that's why you want to add a humidifier. For most houses, the recommended air change rate is one change every three hours. Many houses don't come within an order of magnitude of this degree of airtightness.
There's not likely to be a downside to sealing the attic, except for the time you'll spend doing it. Tyvek suits and particulate masks are the order of the day there. And this is a good time of the year to work in the attic. Your humidity level should improve, and you'll spend less money trying to heat the outdoors. If you have ice dams, air sealing the attic will probably avoid them next year. It's highly unlikely that you could make your house too tight, but once you're done sealing, it wouldn't be a bad idea to spend the money you would have spent on the humidifier to have a weatherization contractor come in and do a worst case depressurization test on any combustion appliances (furnace, boiler, water heater). Arguing with a Breaktimer is like mud-wrestling a pig -- Sooner or later you find out the pig loves it.
Like Andy says, the first step is to seal everything as tightly as possible. Ideally, you'd seal "penetrations" in the attic, seal around outlets in outside walls, paint the walls with vapor barrier paint, pull the inside trim around windows and doors and foam there with low-expansion foam. Etc.
If you still need a humidifier (and you likely will if you're anywhere north of, say, Indianapolis), either a "powered" unit (with built-in fan) or a "bypass" unit is good. (These install on the ductwork, near the furnace.) You want a "tankless" model that runs water continuously while running, with the water draining out a drain hose -- much less crud buildup vs the tank style units. (You'll need a convenient drain or will have to install a condensate pump for the drain water.) Aprilaire makes some good units, as do several other manufacturers.
Like the other guys said - "evaporative drip" type, like the AprilAire which is popular in my area: http://www.aprilaire.com/product.asp?ID=FBEB12213A034BF8B488ADBA514A15E1&categoryID=F16F78145781484A8A7C756B87F43AB3
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Tool Donations Sought
I'm matching tool donors to a church mission to Haiti - we're shipping a bus converted to a medical facility in (now it looks like) April and can fill it with clothes, tools and all sorts of stuff needed in that poorest of all countries. A few hand tools or power tools can provide a livelihood for an otherwise destitute family. Please email me if you have tools to donate.
Thanks to Jeff and David and Jim and Rich and Steven and Mark and Jason and Shep and Jen and Mike and Joe and Bill and Ken for their offers!
Several donations have arrived! Thanks and God bless!
Jek,
Would like to add another opinion. We are in the Washington DC area. Our house is 25 years old, but fairly well sealed and insulated in my opinion. The problem that we have had from the very start is that the furnace does not run enough to really allow a furnace mounted humidifier to do any good. Quite a few years ago, we purchased a 12 gallon console type and that solved the problem. Its a bit of a hassle filling it every other day, but it does the job nicely.
Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md
I installed an Aprilaire 700, fed it hot water, and rigged it so it will turn on the furnace fan when the humidistat calls. No problem maintaining humidity regardless of the temperature or how often the furnace runs.
(Originally I just rigged it with hot water because I had to install it on the return air duct due to space problems. But when I saw the problem with furnace run time I rewired it to turn the fan on.)