Whole House Humidifier

[ToddW]

I was looking at some whole house humidifiers and they seem to go for $180 to $300 and install right in your existing duct and a water line, and good to go!

The problem is we don't have central heat/air and don't have any duct work at all anywhere in the house.

I only need to output the moist air in the downstairs / great room as upstairs can be handled by 2 smaller humidifiers or a 2nd one of these big ones in the central stairs / hallway separating both bedrooms.

Would I be fine just building a small AL or galvanized box to install it on? Or will I still need some type of fan to blow the moisture away from the unit to prevent the floor from soaking in that one spot?

Anyone have any ideas / suggestions?

I'm not opposed to doing a combo unit that has variable speed fan + hepa filtration and then optionally I can turn on the humidifier as we already run a couple filter units too.

Ideally foot print would not be any bigger than 20" x 20" and 4-5" tall, free standing. I've also thought about doing some 12" x 8" holes in the floor (downstairs) adding some duct work for a U so basically it ***** air in goes through a filter, and then back up and on the way back up I could install the humidifier. The I've got a combo unit and it's in the crawl space which is about 3' .

 

[AirJunky]

I have one on our forced air heating/AC setup. Works great. Solved those winter time ****** noses if you know what I mean. I think what it does best is disperse the moisture throughout the entire house. With several individual units, you will end up with some parts of the house that are humid, other parts are dry. Keep them away from stereo equipment & other electronics. And windows or sliding doors. I think if I was doing it, I'd set them up in the areas where I spend most of my time, ie; bedroom, kitchen, living/family room, etc.

 

[ToddW]

I have one on our forced air heating/AC setup. Works great. Solved those winter time ****** noses if you know what I mean. I think what it does best is disperse the moisture throughout the entire house. With several individual units, you will end up with some parts of the house that are humid, other parts are dry. Keep them away from stereo equipment & other electronics. And windows or sliding doors. I think if I was doing it, I'd set them up in the areas where I spend most of my time, ie; bedroom, kitchen, living/family room, etc.

Glad to here, what unit make/model did you go with and how large of a house?

Downstairs we have 1 big great room, and my office which I keep the door closed and humidity stays in the low 40% range already. We're going through 1-3G a day just on in the kettles and it can barely keep it 38% so not too worried about the TV, stereo, speakers, etc In summer we're usually well above 40% too.

Upstairs where we have 2 bedrooms is far enough away humidity stays higher, but having 1 large unit int he hall between the rooms would work I'm sure.

Thanks for the input!

 

[justinjoyal]

You need a forced air system with ducts to install the type of humidifier you are referring to.

You might wanna look at something like this:

http://www.humidity.com/Humidifier-...m-Humidifiers/RH2-Residential-Home-Humidifier

 

[brewchief]

Look at an aprilaire 350 or 360, they are both designed for houses with no ductwork.

 

[justinjoyal]

^^ This will work as well but OP will need to get some duct work with a diffuser / register.

 

[ToddW]

You need a forced air system with ducts to install the type of humidifier you are referring to.

You might wanna look at something like this:

http://www.humidity.com/Humidifier-...m-Humidifiers/RH2-Residential-Home-Humidifier

http://www.nortec-parts.com/nortec-rh2-space-style-256-0952-humidifier.html

Looks like a great quality unit the problem is that it's a "Steam" humidifier and therefor installation requirements are much greater as well as electrical requirements and cost is a big jump, but that's not too much the issue if it works great.

I guess I should clarify: Not looking for a unit that requires a drain, 220/240v power or produces 'hot steam'.

Does this limit me a lot? In general there doesn't seem to be many choices.

 

[danski0224]

http://www.nortec-parts.com/nortec-rh2-space-style-256-0952-humidifier.html

Looks like a great quality unit the problem is that it's a "Steam" humidifier and therefor installation requirements are much greater as well as electrical requirements and cost is a big jump, but that's not too much the issue if it works great.

I guess I should clarify: Not looking for a unit that requires a drain, 220/240v power or produces 'hot steam'.

Does this limit me a lot? In general there doesn't seem to be many choices.

You'll never be able to add much humidity above a certain point with cold evaporation.

To get past that, you either need a fan powered unit on a warm air supply plenum or a steam unit.

Aprilaire and probably others have self contained evaporative humidifiers that do not have a drain requirement and they have their own fan. These would need to be connected to a hot water source.

That Nortec unit looks pretty slick with the built in fan. Aprilaire has something similar, but it uses a fan pack. The Nortec unit looks like it would be a much cleaner install and it appears to use steam canisters like Aprilaire.

 

[ToddW]

You'll never be able to add much humidity above a certain point with cold evaporation.

To get past that, you either need a fan powered unit on a warm air supply plenum or a steam unit.

Aprilaire and probably others have self contained evaporative humidifiers that do not have a drain requirement and they have their own fan. These would need to be connected to a hot water source.

That Nortec unit looks pretty slick with the built in fan. Aprilaire has something similar, but it uses a fan pack. The Nortec unit looks like it would be a much cleaner install and it appears to use steam canisters like Aprilaire.

The temperature of my great room is regularly 74-78 at about waist level warmer the higher we mount it is that not 'hot air' blowing through the fan enough for a cold evap? Back in my younger apartment dwelling days we had a swamp cooler that would bring up humidity to insane levels with 0 amount of heat, I take it this is a different type of moisture made/maker though? If these weren't such a PITA to keep clean/manage I'd try a swamp cooler.

35* RH without kettles or small humidifier, 38* with. So we'd only need to add 4-7% is that not doable with cold?

1.5kW @ 120V is just way too much $$ considering we pay $0 for heating I don't want to suddenly have to pay $100+/mo

 

[ToddW]

Did an experiment today with hot steam with a pot on the stove... with the fire blazing.

Went from 66*F in the house to 76*F with ceiling fan on in about 1HR. Had my 2 kettles going as usual which hold us steady around 38%.

With the water boiling on the stove and about 1/2 G used humidity also went to 48%.

So, it looks like even though that other unit uses a lot of power to generate steam we won't need to run it too much!! This is great, and it also means we can add humidity FAST. (IE: In the morning or when we return from being gone all day or even set the sensor to just hold.)

Going to look into that unit more now.