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[caper]

here's a funny question, is 71 degrees inside your house when the outside temp is lets say above freezing the same as when its - 20 outside.....lol I know it is ...but really doesn't feel like it sometimes......

[mlappin]

Whats your humidity in the house when it’s -20 below outside?

Once we started remodeling and using a lot of oak in the house we installed a whole house humidifier, if the humidity in the house stay up you can lower the thermostat a degree or two compared when its dry in the house and you’ll still feel comfortable.

How tight is the house as well? After we replaced the south foundation, rebuilt the wall, added house wrap, fanfold and new windows on the south and west side we lowered the thermostat another degree. All those little drafts that you may never even have noticed before were now gone and it just felt too warm where we had always had the thermostat set before.

[Cabo]

Good reply Mlappin.  We've been advocates for whole house humidification for the last 15 years.  They make a tremendous difference with woodwork, flooring and health in general. 

[mlappin]

It’s been 15 years since we’ve had ours, had to do something as if it gets too dry the wife was waking up with nose bleeds and we couldn’t begin to carry enough water to a standalone unit.

[U.P. Doug]

I have been using a stand alone unit forever and have been thinking about putting a whole house unit in, instead of hauling buckets to fill the one I have. Curious as to what brand you put in mlappin? Sounds like it works well for you.

[mlappin]

Well at first I installed one with a foam filter that rotated, much like a standalone unit, installs in a duct and runs of a humidistat and had a 1/4” water line run to it.

Before we started all the remodeling it helped but never shut off, anytime the fan on the furnace ran so did it.

Found a good deal on a Autoflo S2020 and installed that and have been using it for quite awhile, it’s nice, will keep the fan running on the furnace if their is a call for more moisture instead of just running when the furnace does. It does take a bit of maintenance though, clean it in the spring when not enough moisture is no longer a problem then again about the end of January or so. How often it needs cleaned depends on the quality of your water, unfortunately they do not recommend using soft water in it so it needs hooked up to straight tap water. A inline disposable water filter does help though.


http://www.supplyhouse.com/EWC-S2020-S2020-Steam-Humidifier-220-VAC

[U.P. Doug]

Thanks for the info mlappin. Glad I asked as I did not know these existed and was thinking about putting one of the foam wheel units in, but I like this much better. I have good water here, this area has a lot of artisan wells which is what we have. Thanks again!