Central Humidifier
Sergey Brin
central humidifier. However, it is unclear where to install it.
Our house has two heat pumps; one serves the 1st floor and basement
and the other serves the second floor. As a result, the two possible
places to put a humidifier are the basement and the attic. The
contractors who have come in to look have told us basically two
things: First, it is better to have a humidifier in the attic because
humidity tends to drop (this seems somewhat countrintuitive to me).
Some have said it would be useless to have one in the basement because
of this while others have said it would be only a minor decrease in
humidity. The second thing they have all said is that it would be much
more expensive to put a humidifier into the attic because of plumbing
and other complications (of this I have no doubt).
Yet another thing, one guy mentioned was that ideal humidity was
around 50% and a central humidifier could bring it up only to around 30%.
So, I seek advice as to whether a central humidifier is worth it and
how important is it to have it upstairs rather than downstairs?
Thanks,
--sergey
Mike Railsback
I'm no expert but I can speak from recent experience. We just built
a house in TX and had a central humidifier installed. Our situation
is very similar to yours. Our house has 2 heat pumps with back-up
gas furnaces. One is for the upstairs and one for the downstairs. We
do not have a basement. The humidifier was installed in the attic and
attached to the downstairs furnace (even when the heat pump is used
the air passes through the furnace). At the present time our upstairs
is vary rarely used for day to day living.
We have just finished our 1st winter in the house and found that the
humidifier worked great. In fact, we noticed right away that it was
not working because of the low humidity and static electricity present
in the house. Turned out the plumber had not finished hooking up the
water line. I had the same concern about whether or not the unit
would be able to keep the humidity high enough (30-45% setting on
the control for the unit). What we found was that on cold days
(20 F here in TX) we actually needed to turn the unit down because the
windows on the house were fogging up. We found the humidity level
very comfortable and our 2 cats loved the fact that they could be
petted and not electricuted.
Because our's was a new house, we did not have the building concerns
that you mentioned. However, you might be considering a different
kind of unit than ours. Ours attaches directly to the furnace. Therefore,
you are forced to locate it where ever your furnace is located. The only
question in our case was upstairs or downstairs furnace. In our case the
logic we used was that we live in the downstairs portion of the house
90% of the time. Also, hot air rises. Since we only plan to use the unit
during the winter while we are heating the house, it seemed to make
sense to put the unit on the downstairs furnace. This did seem to
work OK.
Hope this helps. You might want to talk to the actual manufacturer of
the unit rather than the contractors. At least in my case the contractors
were not really familiar with the units. They made their living by installing
HVAC systems and a humidifier was simply an added feature that came up
now and then.
Regards,
Mike Railsback
mi...@mkcase1.dseg.ti.com
ari l. ben
Sergey Brin <ser...@Octopus.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
>Due to the terrible dryness in our house, we are looking into getting a
>central humidifier. However, it is unclear where to install it.
>
>Our house has two heat pumps; one serves the 1st floor and basement
>and the other serves the second floor. As a result, the two possible
>places to put a humidifier are the basement and the attic. The
>contractors who have come in to look have told us basically two
>things: First, it is better to have a humidifier in the attic because
>humidity tends to drop (this seems somewhat countrintuitive to me).
>Some have said it would be useless to have one in the basement because
>of this while others have said it would be only a minor decrease in
>humidity. The second thing they have all said is that it would be much
>more expensive to put a humidifier into the attic because of plumbing
>and other complications (of this I have no doubt).
>
>Yet another thing, one guy mentioned was that ideal humidity was
>around 50% and a central humidifier could bring it up only to around 30%.
>So, I seek advice as to whether a central humidifier is worth it and
>how important is it to have it upstairs rather than downstairs?
>
>Thanks,
>--sergey
the central humidifier attached to your heating system is the best
answer. the best models will have no trouble keeping your house at 45% (
ideal) . most reputable heating contractors can install the top of the
line models and do a quality job. if you opt for the portable models
then the answer is to place humidifiers where needed. one on the top
floor and one on the bottom floor. this method is effective but a royal
pain in the neck. good luck.
-----------------------------------------------------------ari-------------
ti...@shore.net