Whole House Humidifier??

[gozer]

I have a whole house one in my new house. I really like it. At the old house I was adding several gallons of water to the free standing kind every day which was a PITA. With the new one I just swap out the antimicrobial filter once a year in the fall. The control system determines whether water is flowing or not, but there is a valve you can turn off if you want manual control in the off season.

There is some debate on whether the antimicrobial filters really do anything in the real world. They cost more than the ones with out the coating.

[sengsational]

I figured I'd buy the appropriately sized AprilAire for my house, but it looks like AprilAire is carried by HVAC contractors and not Lowes or HomeDepot (I was going to install it myself). It looks like AprilAire has an outdoor sensor and adjusts the indor RH depending on how cold it is. The ones at the hardware stores (Hamilton and Honeywell) might not have that feature, but seem to use the same "technology". I wondered if anyone had any experience with those.

[Dimsumkid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational I figured I'd buy the appropriately sized AprilAire for my house, but it looks like AprilAire is carried by HVAC contractors and not Lowes or HomeDepot (I was going to install it myself). It looks like AprilAire has an outdoor sensor and adjusts the indor RH depending on how cold it is. The ones at the hardware stores (Hamilton and Honeywell) might not have that feature, but seem to use the same "technology". I wondered if anyone had any experience with those.

I've see plenty of AprilAire units sold on Amazon and ebay, you may want to check there.

The only other brand I've had was an Autoflo and a sibling had another model of Autoflo. The concepts are the same. From reading about the Aprilaire outdoor temp sensor, it make the humidity setting automatic vs. manually setting the humidity level (My unit is a manual setting). Once you set it, you almost never change it. The unit will turn off, if the level is reached.

[Pleeplus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dimsumkid I've see plenty of AprilAire units sold on Amazon and ebay, you may want to check there. The only other brand I've had was an Autoflo and a sibling had another model of Autoflo. The concepts are the same. From reading about the Aprilaire outdoor temp sensor, it make the humidity setting automatic vs. manually setting the humidity level (My unit is a manual setting). Once you set it, you almost never change it. The unit will turn off, if the level is reached.

Agreed, the one that I had installed was the Aprilaire 600 series and is a manually controlled unit. I was able to find the exact unit on eBay for less than $150 (see link). I noticed it was rated to handle up to 4000 square feet and it seems to be handling my 3000 square feet nicely.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aprilaire-60...-/170975238611

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational I figured I'd buy the appropriately sized AprilAire for my house, but it looks like AprilAire is carried by HVAC contractors and not Lowes or HomeDepot (I was going to install it myself). It looks like AprilAire has an outdoor sensor and adjusts the indor RH depending on how cold it is. The ones at the hardware stores (Hamilton and Honeywell) might not have that feature, but seem to use the same "technology". I wondered if anyone had any experience with those.

My older AprilAire does not have an outdoor temperature sensor. I occasionally set it to a lower humidity level when it gets down to zero or so outside - but generally go by condensation forming on the windows. It's no problem for me, and if I were to travel, I'd just set to the low side. It might be convenient, but not a big deal, IMO.

Compared to a stand-alone humidifier, it is already miles more convenient.

-ERD50

[zinger1457]

When I look at the installation manuals for the whole house humidifiers they all seem to refer to the need to make connections to both the supply and return ducts. I have a forced gas heater but there are only supply ducts, there is a big vent under the heater with an outside air source that acts as the return but there are no return ducts. Does anyone have similar design and have a whole house humidifier connected to it?

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinger1457 When I look at the installation manuals for the whole house humidifiers they all seem to refer to the need to make connections to both the supply and return ducts. I have a forced gas heater but there are only supply ducts, there is a big vent under the heater with an outside air source that acts as the return but there are no return ducts. Does anyone have similar design and have a whole house humidifier connected to it?

That sounds like a really inefficient way to condition your living space. If you pump air from outside to the inside, then you'd need to have somewhere for all that air to go back outside. Is your house in a special climate? Is it standard construction? If not, I'd take another look and see if there isn't a return air duct. SSomtimes its built into the house, for instance, just pulls air through between floor joists instead of having a true duct. If that is the case, the installation would proceed normally with the bypass duct installed on either side of the furnace.

PS: To the posters about Aprilaire vs other brands, I think I will order one from eBay, but I've decided to put it off until next season.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational That sounds like a really inefficient way to condition your living space. ...

Yes, it sounds very, very odd to me.

I wonder if he is confusing the supply of outside air to the furnace for combustion with the inside air returns?

I agree, the air returns might be hidden in the walls and not obvious.

-ERD50

[zinger1457]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Yes, it sounds very, very odd to me. I wonder if he is confusing the supply of outside air to the furnace for combustion with the inside air returns? I agree, the air returns might be hidden in the walls and not obvious. -ERD50

This is in high desert of Arizona and the duct system is shared between the heater and an evapoartive cooler. The house is built on a slab and there is only a supply duct, I'm sure of that. The heater is centrally located in the house and there is a big air vent that sits under the heater that acts as the return line. It is a common duct design for homes with an evaporative cooler. Only use the heater ocassionally for maybe 3 months (Dec-Feb) of the year but definitely need a humidifier for those months. Currently use a big console model but it is a pain to fill.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinger1457 This is in high desert of Arizona and the duct system is shared between the heater and an evapoartive cooler. The house is built on a slab and there is only a supply duct, I'm sure of that. The heater is centrally located in the house and there is a big air vent that sits under the heater that acts as the return line. It is a common duct design for homes with an evaporative cooler. Only use the heater ocassionally for maybe 3 months (Dec-Feb) of the year but definitely need a humidifier for those months. Currently use a big console model but it is a pain to fill.

OK, that's very different from any set up I've seen, but I've lived in colder climates. Regardless, it seems an ineffective way to get the air circulated through the house. Does that same furnace blower drive the air through the evaporative cooler?

I've seen that some of the whole-house style humidifiers have their own fans, rather than depend on the flow from supply-return duct. Maybe that would work for you?

-ERD50

[zinger1457]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 OK, that's very different from any set up I've seen, but I've lived in colder climates. Regardless, it seems an ineffective way to get the air circulated through the house. Does that same furnace blower drive the air through the evaporative cooler? I've seen that some of the whole-house style humidifiers have their own fans, rather than depend on the flow from supply-return duct. Maybe that would work for you? -ERD50

The evaporate cooler has it's own heavy duty blower that draws in outside air and since there is no recirculation it requires that windows be left open to allow a place for the new air to escape, actually works very well and certainly fixes any low humidity issues during the warm season. When the cold season starts it requires that a plate be installed in the duct just before the evap cooler to stop the warm air from being sent outside through the cooler, a similar plate is installed in the duct just above the heater when the cooler is used. Not as bad as it sounds since we usually have a couple months between the hot/cold season when heating or cooing isn't needed.

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinger1457 The heater is centrally located in the house and there is a big air vent that sits under the heater that acts as the return line. It is a common duct design for homes with an evaporative cooler.

Ok, I presume that this centrally located heater is in "conditioned space". What I mean by that is it's not in an attic or anything that's not heated or cooled. This also means that the "big air vent" is your return air. That makes a lot more sense than having a furnace in unconditioned space, trying to pump air from outside into the house without a method to get the conditioned air back to the furnace for re-use.

So, back to the original problem. Although you don't have a return "duct", your system does have a return vent that pulls-in conditioned air to be heated. Passive humidifiers can be installed on the supply or return side. You would install it on the supply duct and route the bypass duct (somehow) to that big air vent. This would allow warm air from the supply to flow to the return (the air pressure is higher on the supply side of the furnace blower). Without seeing it, I can't say if there's a place to cut a hole very near the big air vent, or if you can just put the bypass duct very near the big air vent. If that big air vent is on a big empty box, just cut a hole in one side of the box to put the bypass vent. If not, just put the bypass duct near the big air vent and the humid air will get "sucked up" and distributed to the rest of the house.

[sengsational]

Just to wrap-up, I installed an AprilAire 600 with digital control. More in this thread: http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1503034