Humidifier

[fiddle]

I am looking to get a humidifier for my workplace and want to know if anyone else has had success with this in their workplace? We have vents where I work and air blows out all the time so not sure good it will work that well, but think it is worth a try.
Thanks
fiddle

[Guest]

I tried this with a small portable one... it bumped up the humidity by about 10% within a foot or so of the humidier, maybe 5% within 2 ft... (I actually measured the humidity with a little device... not sure what they're called... anyhow...) but any further than that and the effect was negligible. Plus, since it was a cool mist one, sitting so close to it on the counter made my fingers icy cold. If you get cold hands easily like I do, maybe try a warm mist one?

My workplace is pretty wide open, lots of air vents too... the ventilation is just too darned good there to give my little humidifier much of a chance!

[fiddle]

Thanks Saag,
I thought about that too, getting a warm air mist one. I don't want to invest a lot of $ into it as I think the same will happen with the vents. I am willing to give it a try though as a little relief is better then none maybe
fiddle

[spmcc]

Just FYI - if you have rosacea, then cool air humidifiers (not warm air) are recommended.

[Joseph]

SAAG. Do you use a humidifier at home. Does that help at all? This winter seems to be really hard on my eyes but I dont want to spend money on more stuff that doesn't work. Thanks.

[Guest]

Hi Joseph,

I had a humidifier hooked up to my furnace system so my entire house is humidified - it works awesome - I highly recommend going this route if possible! The humidifier I have is practically maintenance-free also. The only thing I have to be careful of is not to let the humidity get too high in winter - if the humidity is too high during a cold snap, there is a ton of condensation on my windows, exterior doors freeze shut etc.

[patrick]

humifider

hi saag,

i am very curious about the humifider you've hooked up to your furnace system.
could you please explain a little about how all this works?
i have the same problem as you,and many others here i guess. my standard humifider is just not effective enough. we have a rather large living room and this humifider doesn't even raise the humidity by one percent.
at home when the heater is on humidity varies between 26 to 30 %. i'd like to raise the humidity by at least 10% if possible. till now i haven't been able to manage that. those small watercontainers hanging on the radiators don't seem to be very effective as well.

thanks in advance for your input!

patrick...

[Guest]

I had my humidifier installed by the same company that installed the furnace and HRV in my house. Here is the way my system is set up:

Furnace fan is on continuously

HRV can be on or off depending on how I see fit (when on, it tends to counteract the effects of the humidifier... if the humidity is getting too low (even with the humidifier running continuously), I'll turn off the HRV for a while to let the humidity rise)

Humidifier is set to be running whenever the furnace fan is on. Also, my humidifier does not have a humidistat on it, so I turn the humidifier up or down manually depending on the humidity level I want.

If you don't have an HRV, you prob. won't need the humifier to be on continuously like I do.

All of the above should make sense to any HVAC contractor that also installs humidifiers. Also, depending on how the HVAC system is set up in your home, you might end up with a slightly different humidifier set-up than I have.

Lastly, since my humidifier is on pretty much 24/7 for well over half the year, the solenoid valve on it breaks about once every year and half... costs me about $170 to have it replaced by the HVAC guy... the part itself is only about $70 though, so thinking I ought to learn to replace it myself and save the labour costs... it doesn't look that hard to do...

[patrick]

hi again,

thanks for your clear explanation!

however,i don't think it will be possible to install a system like yours here in my house.
i neither have heat recovery ventilation (hrv) or heat,ventilation and air condition system (hvac). i guess whe are still in the dark ages here compared to where you live.

both systems are present at my workspace and to be honest they have a notoriously bad reputation,because they break down more often than they function properly.

i have central heating at home and ventilation is provided by openening a window now and then. how about that haha.

still i've been thinking a lot about building a humifidier system myself that works continiously. i have a standard portable humifidier which i have to refill far too often when it is on continiously,because it has a ridicilously small watertank.

my plan is to hook this device up to the central water supply system in order to raise the humidity to the level i want and just turn it down when humidity tends to get too high.

i admit it is not nearly as sophisticated as the system you have at home,but maybe it can still function reasonably well.

another thing is that we have a 3 stories high house and it has an open staircase. i guess i'll close the staircase,because otherwise much of the humid air will disappear too quickly out of the living room to one of the other floors. although working continiously a portable humifidier has a limited capacity of course.

thanks again for your input!

patrick...

[Guest]

As long as you have a furnace, I'm pretty sure you can have a humidifier hooked into your heating system by a furnace guy/gal. If anything, the fact that you do not have an HRV means a humidifier hooked up with your heating system will have a way easier time raising the humidity in your house. They could still hook up the humidifier to run whenever the furnace fan is running - since you don't have an HRV counteracting the humidifier, you'll be able to turn your humidifier down to a way lower setting than what I have to use, which should be good news in terms of wear and tear on your humidifier.

I'd call a few heating contractors to see if any of them install humidifiers like I've described... I bet you'll find some that do