Running humidifier without heating the air

[thomer]

I live in a two story home and there's a furnace in the crawl space for the first floor and a furnace in the attic for the second floor. The second floor attic has a built in humidifier that is working properly.

My house is pretty well insulated and the upstairs furnace doesn't kick in very often, never for more than 10 minutes at a clip. Thus the humidifier isn't actually ON for much of the day. My hygrometer is showing 30% humidity.

I don't know much about HVAC (cleary). The humidifier is attached to the duct off the furnace, water drips down from the top and through a filter, and excess water drains out of the bottom.

Is it possible to run the furnace blower and humidifier without heating up the space? It's already warm enough, I just need more moisture.

 

[Jbullfrog]

Yes it's possible. However, without heat, you will have alot of moisture in your ductwork that may cause rust issues. Most furnace guys hate them and recomend getting room humidifiers, as they don't put extra moisture into your ductwork where it could pool and cause problems.

 

[FXDawg]

Yes it's possible. However, without heat, you will have alot of moisture in your ductwork that may cause rust issues. Most furnace guys hate them and recomend getting room humidifiers, as they don't put extra moisture into your ductwork where it could pool and cause problems.

I agree, they are a real mess creator...Humidifiers and garbage disposals...don't let them in your house! Only Kitchen sink drains I've had to snake had garbage disposals on them or were old Galvanized pipe or were not pitched properly.

I don't how many Humidifiers I've seen rust out and take part of the plenum with it. Then people stop using them and they sit an mold...ewwww...Have someone uninstall it and use the room unit. Or boil some water and save some money.

 

[6768rogues]

We have several large house plants and they eat up gallons of water, humidifying our air at the same time.

 

[Full Throttle]

even though the heat does not run, the humidifier should bring on the fan to circulate air. If it doesn't it's not contolled properly. Yes Humidifiers are a once a month maint item, they should have auto drain down, should be pulled and cleaned prior and after heating seaon and left dry in cooling months.

1 properly sized humidifier should do the whole house as a moisture will spread throughout the structure.

BUT, the need of a humidifier is really a bandaid for poor building envelope performance, I would have a home energy audit done and find your infiltration.

1 other thing I would like for a homeowner to research is a thing called ''stack effect'', it's when your home acts like a chimney, cold air in through floor, heated air out through ceiling, creating it's own ''draft''

 

[bd8134]

I use a humidifier which is connected to my ac ductwork. My downstairs a/c heat rarely comes on, I use a pellet stove, water baseboard heating and a heat pump.
My humidifier is a Honeywell steam unit, the drip humidifiers I read seem to have a bad rap for mold etc.
It is all controlled by my ac controller, it monitors outside temp and turns on the humifier with the ac fan accordingly, no heat.
I read somewhere that cold feed humidifiers are not designed or do not work without heat. I am sure there are some knowledgeable people here to advise you on this.
Maybe install your existing humidifier on your downstairs furnace or install a new unit, maybe steam in either location.

 

[brewchief]

It wasn't common until a few years ago to have a humidifier control that could bring the fan on without heat, it's not uncommon to have one that will run if the blower is manually turned on at the thermostat however.

There are many ways to wire a humidifier depending on the furnace it's on, without knowing how it is currently wired it is hard to say if it can be run independent of the heat.

If you want a flow-though style humidifier to work when the heat is on it should be fed with hot water.

I've installed hundreds of humidifiers over the years and find that the majority of problems with them are maintenance related, replace the pad once or twice a year and make sure the drain is clear at the same time.

I've only seen mold in two or three flow-though style humidifiers, they all had one thing in common, a replacement water panel that was made of a fabric rather then the factory panel made of metal with a coating.


I will never recommend any humidifier that has standing water in it, this includes the rotating drum types and room humidifiers, all to often they simply become bacteria breeding grounds.