HUMIDIFIER TUTORIAL & FAQ
Furnace humidifiers are installed in this area to add moisture to the air in our homes in the winter, because the relative humidity inside the home can become very low.
Why does the relative humidity in my house get so low in the winter?
The common misconception is that the moisture is being cooked out of the air by the furnace. But this is not the case. The term 35% “relative” humidity means that the air contains 35% of the amount of moisture it is capable of holding relative to the temperature of that air. The higher the air temperature is, the more moisture it is capable of holding. So 70 degree air is capable of holding a lot more moisture than 20 degree air. And likewise, 70 degree air at 35% relative humidity contains much more moisture than 20 degree air at 35% humidity.
While our house might be our castle, it is in reality nothing but a big box full of holes sitting the outdoor environment. Outside air is constantly entering our castle, just as inside air is constantly exiting it. Let’s say that the outside air is 20 degrees and has 35% relative humidity. When that air enters our 70 degree home, the amount of moisture it is capable of holding increases dramatically. So the relative humidity in the house is going to plummet unless we add more moisture to it to bring it back up to 35% RH.
How big a humidifier do I need?
The required humidifier size is based on several things:
Number 1, the winter water
temperature is a big factor, because the colder the water going to the
humidifier is, the lower the moisture output of the humidifier will be. Conventional humidifiers work by moving the
warm air in the furnace through the water in the humidifier. Science dictates that as the water becomes
colder, less of it will be evaporated by the warm air moving across it. Obviously we could run hot water rather than
cold water to the humidifier to accelerate the evaporation process. But I absolutely don’t recommend this for
a number of reasons to be discussed later.
Number 2, the outdoor temperature is another very large factor, because it creates a larger difference between the indoor and outdoor temperature. And as previously mentioned, that’s a problem, because the RH of the outdoor air will amount to much less RH in the indoor air as that colder air enters the house.
Number 3, the thermostat setting is another big factor for the exact same reason as number 2, i.e. you’re creating a bigger temp difference between the outside and inside air when you set the thermostat to a higher temperature.
Number 4, the size of the house in cubic feet (not square feet, so we’re including ceiling height) is a big factor because there are more cubic feet in the house for the humidifier to add the required humidity to.
Number 5, the tightness of the house is a biggie. As the volume of colder air entering the house increases, the humidity in the house drops more. And as the increased volume of heated air in the house escapes, it takes the moisture that the humidifier has added with it. So it’s a double whammy.
There are some things that people do in a house that make the required amount of added moisture much greater. It must be kept in mind that the furnace, which the humidifier is installed on must be running before the humidifier will deliver humidity. So if you use any alternative methods of heating the house, like a fireplace with a heat exchanger setup or a woodburning stove or space heaters, you’re reducing the time that the humidifier will be operating. And if you use a fireplace with no heat exchanger system, most of your humidified air that the humidifier has generated is going up the chimney and will be replaced by colder infiltrating air that will reduce the moisture level in the home as soon as it enters.
I have a 2 story house with 1 furnace for each floor. Do I need a humidifier on each furnace?
I believe the best approach is to add one large humidifier to the first floor system. If that doesn’t work, a humidifier can be added to the second floor system later. Heat rises, and if you have the thermostats on each floor set at the same temperature, the upstairs furnace rarely comes on. So that humidifier never adds any humidity to the entire structure. So you’ll have much more moisture added with one large unit on the first floor furnace.
In what cases would you recommend against using a humidifier?
Humidifiers have the ability to aggravate people’s allergies, especially mold allergies. I always try to discourage people from installing a humidifier on a furnace for people with mold allergies.
I also don’t like to see people using them in homes with older windows. I’ve seen a lot of wood rot around the windows caused by the condensation that forms on them. The condensation forms for the same reason that the humidity in the house becomes lower when there’s a large temp difference between the inside and outside air. Here’s how it works: You’ve added moisture to the air with the humidifier, thereby raising the RH of that air up to let’s say 35%. The older window panes have phenomenal heat transfer. Heat moves from hot to cold. So the heat contained in the air next to the window gets sucked right out of the air, and the air temp next to the window plummets. So the RH of that very cold air can easily reach 100% at that low temp. At that point it can hold no more moisture and will give up the moisture in the form of condensation. I’ve actually seen ice build up on the panes.
I would also never consider installing a humidifier on a furnace installed in an attic. This is just asking for trouble. At some point the unthinkable is going to happen. It will either leak or freeze or both. It’s not a matter of if. It’s just a matter of when.
Will these humidifiers keep my
house at a constant RH?
Simply put, no, not in our climate. They are merely meant to add some humidity to the house. As previously mentioned, the demand for humidity is the greatest when the temperature difference between the outside and inside air is the greatest. But at the same time, the potential for condensation in the house is also the greatest at those conditions with a humidifier. So even if you have a big enough humidifier to supply the amount of moisture needed to maintain a given RH during very cold weather, you would likely have to reduce the setting of the humidistat control on the humidifier to prevent condensation from occurring.
There are some fairly new computerized humidistats available now that have an outside sensor that will automatically reduce the humidity setting as the outdoor temperature drops. But these are extremely problematic.
Hot water hookups to humidifiers
I just think it’s a bad idea. This really scales up the humidifier parts, especially the water solenoid valve and the water panels.
Most of the furnace humidifiers only evaporate about 20% of the water coming to them. So 80% of that water is going down the drain. I really hate to see people send water that they’ve already paid to heat down the drain. It’s like rolling up dollar bills and shoving them down the drain.
Basic Humidifier Types
Bypass
Power
Drum
Steam
Bypass models are the most popular, and are quite affordable. They can typically be mounted on either the supply air side or return air side of the system. A duct is then run from the humidifier to the other side. The hot supply side air blows through the water running down through the humidifier.
The power models contain a built in fan motor that eliminates the need for the bypass duct. These are typically mounted on the supply side of the system. They are more expensive than the bypass models, and the motors must be oiled frequently. They also tend to throw some water scale onto the cooling coil sometimes. So I’m not real fond of these types, and feel that they should only be used in installations where other types won’t fit.
The drum types are just a bad idea. They keep the same grungy water in them and merely replace the water as it’s used via a float assembly similar to the ones in a toilet. They drag a drum (wheel) with a media wrapped around it through the nasty water while warm air is blowing across the water. I’ve seen some things in them that would make for a good B movie. The float assembly usually develops the same problem as its toilet float counterpart, i.e. it dribbles and won’t shut off. So if you’re lucky and the overflow drain doesn’t clog up from the scum, the water will find its way to the drain. But in many cases the overflow drain clogs and the water rots out the ductwork and/or furnace.
The steam humidifiers are relatively new to the residential market. They have the ability to put out a lot of humidity, but they use an electric heating element to heat the water. And that heater uses a lot of electricity.
There is one other type that I’m only mentioning as an “also ran” model. It’s probably the worst of all. This model actually sprays a mist of water into the ductwork. You can imagine what the consequences of that are. I’ve only seen a couple of these and that was plenty for me. I’m not sure they still make them.
So the bypass and power humidifiers are pretty much the most popular types, with the vast majority of those being the bypass models.
Bad Humidifier Installs
I hate to admit it, but I’ve made a lot more money correcting bad humidifier installs than from installing new ones. It’s amazing how many possible ways there are to improperly install one.
Here are a few of the common ones I see.
I’ve done some unusual things with humidifier installs to try to get customers some relief from low humidity. I’ll have to post some pictures here. I once installed a monster Aprilaire model 112 about 10’ in the air. They quit making these monsters a long time ago, and it left somewhat of a void, because they really put out some humidity. But they were a total pain to service. They had to be completely removed to change the water panel and oil the power motor. But this was a very large house and that was the only place available to mount it. The owner had me service it every year (with an extension ladder). I had to carry the humidifier down the ladder and back up again. He finally put the house up for sale, and I was somewhat relieved that I wouldn’t have to go through that again. But as luck would have it, my cousin bought the house.
Then I once installed two bypass humidifiers on one furnace and ran them through the same common humidistat. There was simply no other way to get enough capacity for that house from one unit.
I had another customer with a furnace in a very tight closet with a water heater. He begged me to find a way to put a humidifier on it for several years. There was only one available place for it to go, and that was on a vertical side of the supply. But the supply duct wasn’t perfectly vertical, and the humidifier must be mounted true vertical or the water won’t run down through it properly. So I took a series of measurements and fabricated a wedge shaped sheet metal box for it to mount on. The wedge shaped box mounted to the slanted supply duct and the humidifier mounted on the box, making the humidifier perfectly level.
I have another idea in the works, but I’ve yet to try it. It’s for a big house with only one furnace. I would install a bypass humidifier very high up on the large vertical return air drop coming down to the furnace. The drain hose coming out of the bottom of that humidifier would dump into the top of a second bypass humidifier mounted directly under it on the same duct. So there would be no water line to the bottom humidifier. There would only be one cold water line going to the top one. The cold water going through the top one would increase in temperature as it ran through the top humidifier. So it would be warmer when it entered the bottom one, and therefore it would evaporate more efficiently. The bottom humidifier wouldn’t need a water solenoid valve. It would merely contain a water panel. So an old used humidifier could be used for the bottom unit. This would result in a very good savings in the quantity of water used and would provide a much greater humidity output, possibly greater than two separate humidifiers with cold water going to each of them.
Fairway,
KS
Lake
Quivira, KS
Leawood,
KS
Lenexa,
KS
Merriam,
KS
Mission,
KS
Mission
Hills, KS
Mission
Woods, KS
Olathe,
KS
Overland
Park, KS
Prairie
Village, KS
Roeland
Park, KS
Shawnee,
KS
Spring
Hill, KS
Stanley,
KS
Stilwell,
KS
Westwood,
KS
Westwood Hills, KS
Copyright 2007 Leonard Arenson Heating & A/C