Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: eagl on January 13, 2013, 10:27:27 AM
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Anyone have experience or knowledge about whole house humidifiers? 22% humidity here for the last month and my kids are really suffering from it, but my house is big enough that individual room humidifiers just won't cut it. I was thinking about putting something like the honeywell trueSTEAM in the HVAC system. I'd do it myself because the installation manual seems straightforward, except that it's all up in the attic and amateur plumbing in the attic is a recipe for disaster...
Anyone have any experience with humidifiers like this?
Thanks in advance...
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not sure about that, I live in vermont and when its hot its humid so we run AC and when its cold got the furnace running. Being that you live in texas not sure what kind of furnace you have or how often it runs. I have seen humidifiers that tie into the ductwork of a forced hot air furnace. like this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honeywell-Model-HE220-Whole-House-Furnace-Humidifier-w-Humidistat-/160951452865?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25797444c1
although I have to say, I believe this ties into the ductwork for the furnace and in my experience tends to rot out the ducts.
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I'm not in TX. Moved to Las Vegas. Dry all year and a lot drier in winter here than it was in TX, and certainly drier in the summer.
My house is pretty new so the ducts should be aluminum or some sort of metallic flex-duct stuff. My biggest worries are a water leak in the attic from the system coming apart, mold from an improper installation leading to standing water or condensation, and condensation on hvac ductwork and vents leading to rust or corrosion in the system.
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I live in Ma. During the winters the air gets dry due to the furnace running to heat the house. We have had a humidifier system tied into our duct system for over 25 years. It was just replaced recently as we couldn't get the filters any more for the old one. This is the model we have now http://www.aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductDetails&category=5&item=500. Our ducts are still there with no "rot" showing any where and it keeps the house much more comfortable during the winters.
My wife has allergies so if mold shows, she would be the first to notice, but we haven't had any issues. In the apartment next door they added and HVAC system to the second floor apartment (they had two old gas burners in the house to heat it). The system went in the attic. They mounted the whole system in a pan with a drain line leading outside. They also added a sensor to sense excess water in the pan if the drain failed. I'm sure there are plenty of work arounds to cover any questions.
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wow fugitive thats awesome, was in weatherization and about 90% of homes with those had rotted duct work. I worked on a house that was 8 years old, had ac ducts running in exterior walls and they must have been condensing inside the walls during the summer due to not being insulated. every place there was a duct the clapboards were rotted and so was the sheathing.
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Anyone have experience or knowledge about whole house humidifiers? 22% humidity here for the last month and my kids are really suffering from it, but my house is big enough that individual room humidifiers just won't cut it. I was thinking about putting something like the honeywell trueSTEAM in the HVAC system. I'd do it myself because the installation manual seems straightforward, except that it's all up in the attic and amateur plumbing in the attic is a recipe for disaster...
Anyone have any experience with humidifiers like this?
Thanks in advance...
Just install lawn sprinkers in your ceiling. When its too dry. turn them on. Should be enough to humidify your whole house. LOL
Back in the day we would keep pots of water on the radiators
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I would say start with a portable humidifier, escpecially at night. Make sure a smoke alarm is in the same room. You never if one were to fail and the overheat safeties don't work. Over the last 10 years the humidifier types changed a how the vapor is distributed. I recommend, if you can find one, a Vicks hot vapor with high and low settings. I found this one to work the best. Low noise and a low setting keeps a bedroom from gettting too damp. I found mine at K-mart many years ago and may be up to 10 years old.
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I would say start with a portable humidifier, escpecially at night. Make sure a smoke alarm is in the same room. You never if one were to fail and the overheat safeties don't work. Over the last 10 years the humidifier types changed a how the vapor is distributed. I recommend, if you can find one, a Vicks hot vapor with high and low settings. I found this one to work the best. Low noise and a low setting keeps a bedroom from gettting too damp. I found mine at K-mart many years ago and may be up to 10 years old.
Proper humidifiers use ultrasonic sound to disperse the water.
When I saw 'whole house humidifier' I instantly thought 'Katrina'.
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Proper humidifiers use ultrasonic sound to disperse the water.
Those also distribute all the minerals in the water, as a fine powder that covers and gets into EVERYTHING. I had a small single-room ultrasonic humidifier once and although it only humidified the one room, it spread a fine white powder throughout the whole house.
Las Vegas has high mineral content in the water so I have to use either hot mist humidifiers or the ones that use an evaporative wick filter thingy. Cold spray and ultrasonic ones are the worst ones in any area with hard water.
Our house does not use the walls for ducting as far as I can tell. Return ducts are in the ceiling with filters at the grille and they go through standard flex ducting to the AC unit. So all the airflow is through flex ducting which should be pretty resistant to corrosion and mold due to not allowing moisture to soak in to anything.
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I have installed the true steam humidifiers . They will boil out the total dissolved solids in the water. I would install with the R. O. system that Honeywell sells..
Installation is not all that difficult . If you can read a wiring schematic you will do fine with the wiring as well.
Check amp draw on the unit u purchase as they are different between models. I recommend a separate circuit as install on the furnace circuit can over load that circuit.
I am guessing your equipment and supply duct is in attic?
I am not sure I would install in the attic I would defiantly have to look at attic space first.
You do not need to install in attic and that would not be my first choice.
They sell a remote hose kit for installations so you don't need to place unit in attic.
I do recommend the true steam, but of course presupposing optimal installation.
These units need a drain as the self flush.
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Thanks.
The house has 2 "zones", really just one full heating/AC system for upstairs and one for downstairs. They are both completely contained in the attic except for the AC heat exchangers (condensers?) and pumps outside on the ground. There is a laundry room upstairs (I prefer downstairs but that's how they do it in vegas) that would make the water, drain, and electrical connections very easy, but I'm not sure it would be within the 20 ft max distance from the hot/cold box in the attic where the individual ducts branch out from. The attic space would have a place to wire it in and I could route the drain to the AC condensation drip pan which dumps out at ground level outside so I'd have elec and drain, but I'm not sure there is an easy place to tap into the water lines up there.
I'm going to have an HVAC/plumbing installer come out to look at it and make his recommendations. There are some decent evap units that just need the filter thingy replaced every few months, and those supposedly use a lot less electricity than the steam ones. Some of the evap ones are sold with blowers so they can work even when the main heater/ac blower is not running, but obviously that would cost more and be one more thing to break.
The water here is pretty hard so an RO setup would be a good idea, except that that's one more thing to have to maintain and crawling up in the attic is a pain in the butt. It's just a trap door in the ceiling above a hallway, no built-in ladder or stairs. I'd like to limit my trips up there to once or twice a year, at most, so less routine maintenance is a good thing.
I am thinking of only putting one on the upstairs system, since the downstairs floor plan is completely open except for one small den/office and a bathroom. So running just through the upstairs vents ought to work for the whole house.
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Check amp draw on the unit u purchase as they are different between models. I recommend a separate circuit as install on the furnace circuit can over load that circuit.
I am guessing your equipment and supply duct is in attic?
I am not sure I would install in the attic I would defiantly have to look at attic space first.
You do not need to install in attic and that would not be my first choice.
They sell a remote hose kit for installations so you don't need to place unit in attic.
I do recommend the true steam, but of course presupposing optimal installation.
These units need a drain as the self flush.
I done HVAC-R for 25+ years and agree mostly with what FireDrgn has posted..... except the bolded/underlined part.......... it is a good idea to check your amp draw on whatever you buy, but most of today's equipment ( Air handlers and Gas Furnaces ) come from the manufacturer with wiring connection terminals already built into the appliances for your humidifiers.... unless you do go with the steam type humidifiers which require 110v ( 120v ) for most applications.... The AprilAire and Honeywell brands mostly use low-voltage ( 24 volts ) and most of the transformers used today from the factory in equipment is minimum 40VA to 60 VA, so you should have no problems there at all.....
having a HVAC contractor to come out and give you some suggestions would be a great idea, in fact, I would recommend having 2 or 3 different ones come out........ ask them for their advice/suggestions and tell them you want to think about it, talk it over with ya wife and stuff.... you will know/pick up real quick who is there to give you advice verses who is there to just make a quick sale ... ( who wants money in their pocket verses who is a person who cares about their customer)
hope this is of some help and best of luck eagl
<S>
TC ( Johnny )
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Its been raining constantly in the UK for the last 3 months and I had a leak in my roof :cry
Finding the leak was mercifully easy "Broken" roof tile, funny things roofs leaks can be 20 foot away from where its coming in.
I bought a small dehumidifier size of a pc, the amount of water it drew was impressive, i move it from room as needed.
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Pretty much the exact opposite problem here....humidity is usually about 70-80%.
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Whole house humidifier. :devil
Also makes 15-20 gallons of beer at a time.
(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff107/tymekeepyr/100_0967_zps303a0ec6.jpg)
(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff107/tymekeepyr/Beer/Upgraded%20Breery/100_1742.jpg)
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I've never been a fan of installing humidifiers in an attic where the temps can drop below freezing.
+1 to 20 gal humidifier!
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I've never been a fan of installing humidifiers in an attic where the temps can drop below freezing.
Yea. I'm a little worried about that. Temps at night have dropped to around 26 deg at night for the last few days.
Brewing sounds like fun but what's with the dead cat lying on top of the cooler?
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Yea. I'm a little worried about that. Temps at night have dropped to around 26 deg at night for the last few days.
Brewing sounds like fun but what's with the dead cat lying on top of the cooler?
Hey, have some respect for my bomber hat! It gets cold up here with the doors off in the winter :D
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I've had a steam whole house humidifier for years. I forget the brand but I know it's not a Skuttle although Skuttle makes one almost identical to mine. It's not very large--about the size of a shoebox. It's mounted in my ductwork just above the furnace at the beginning of the supply duct. It has a small reservoir and a heating element. It plugs into a standard 110v receptacle. Water supply is much like you'd have for an ice maker on a fridge--1/4" tubing. There's a pigtail control wiring harness that isn't at all complicated. Two wires for a humidistat (that I have on the wall) and another two that tie in the fan center. My unit will operate independently of the heater and will maintain humidity in the house all by itself adding water to the reservoir, heating it and then bringing on the fan as needed.
The only maintenance is in the fall I take it out of the ductwork and clear what flakes I can and then give it a good soak in CLR which brings it back to like new condition.
Aside from being a great help with our sinuses our furniture is thanking us too. :D