Apologies if this has been previously discussed. I did a search using “furnace” and “humidity” and “humidifier” and bottomed out. (Lots of hits but nothing about humidifiers on furnaces.)
I’ve googled it too, and found some good technical info about how they work, and specs on AprilAire, Desert Spring, and Carrier, and then I went to Consumer Reports.
I’ve asked friends and relatives, and everyone says “sounds like a great idea, you go first and tell us how it works.”
Hubby says furnace humidifiers are too much trouble to maintain compared to the room-size humidifiers, and they can mess up your furnace if they malfunction.
But I’m getting tired of refilling those water bottles and I still can’t get the humidity level over 35%. Plus the filters and wicks are pricey.
So I’m asking for personal experience with furnace humidifiers. Do they work? Are they difficult to maintain?
In Houston (where humidity is so high there’s nowhere for sweat to go) a dehumidifier on the A/C & heating system is an absolute must. Everyone has them and if they don’t they get mold reminicent of The Blob creeping from the ductwork.
I’d make sure the company installing it covers mold (and other) damage if the system malfunctions and/or they install it incorrectly; other than that getting one would probably be worth the price!
Check out http://www.AprilAire.com That’s what they do. And they hook right into your water system so theres no need to refill them. We’ve had them in our house since we’ve moved in (and who know’s how long before them). We checked them about a year ago and they’re still clean and working.
We have an AprilAire, too. Keeps the house humidity at about 30 - 35% all the time.
It’s my understanding that much higher than that you start having problems with mold but ask your professional installer for advice. When one of us has a cold or wants temporary extra humidity in the bedroom, we supplement the AprilAire with a table top one that has to be refilled.
It’s a million times better to have it installed on the furnace than filling up the smaller models.
Thanks for the information. I was leaning toward the AprilAire, but I was concerned about the maintenance aspect. Sounds like it might just work.
One of the websites recommended humidity at 40-55%. But I’ll bet they’d sell me an air cleaner to remove the mold spores generated by the extra humidity.
I have had 2. The 1st one came w/ house and was the spray mist into the airstream. I did work and have no complaints about it. THere was a big difference between having it on or off.
Then I replaced the furnace (and installed cent a/c) and got an april-air one - the bypass type where a portion of air leaving the furnace goes through the humidifier and returns right befor the fan. Also no complaints and very nice control which coninside to my humitidy meter. I have had it at high as 65% humity for a short time for some sick kittens once with a booster humitifier in the kitten room. The april air controls that I have allow setting from 0 to 50 %.
I have one on my furnace and it works for me. The thing to watch for when setting the humidity level is the outside temperature. The colder it gets outside the lower the humidistat should be set. If you leave it up high you will get a lot of condensation on your windows and other cold areas. Also, furnace mount units still require regular pad or filter replacement. The ones that don’t have a standing water reservior will require a drain to get rid of the un-used water as it flows through the system. My nearest drain was on the opposite side of the basement from the furnace so I installed a condensate pump (like a mini sump pump with its own collection reservior).
Another happy AprilAire customer checking in here. We just change the filter component once a year (they sell them at our local Home Depot) and all is fine.
What, nobody else has a kitten room in their house? Actually I can’t believe I put ‘kitten room’ in a post
We (my wife and I) take in foster kittens from a local animal shelter. We raise them till they are old enough to get altered as our shelter does not adopt out kittens that are not altered.
The kitten room is a room we set aside for them so we can isolate them from our cats just incase they have some cat disease.
We normally set humitidy (w.o sick kittens) at about 35% and never had problems w/ excess condensation but could see that it could be a problem.
I suppose there might be a gauge on the furnace or on the humidifer, but we have a wall barometer with a humidity gauge (relic of living in the Northwest – everyone had a barometer it seemed), and we have a digital temp/humidity gauge too.
It’s pretty neat, actually – different parts of the house have different temps and humidity readings at different times of the year.
And we’re both getting older, and have different thermostats. So the digital settles arguments about how warm or cold it really is. He’ll say it’s too warm in the bedroom and I’ll show him that it’s only 68 so he can leave the goldarned thermostat alone because the temperature is JUST FINE !!
