Need recommendation for a humidifier please!

Well it's going to be fall pretty soon and I'm looking around for a humidifier to do our whole house. I have a 2 story 1700 sq ft house with Lennox G40 Merit gas furnace, and have lennox central air unit. I am controlling them with a Rite-Temp 8085C tstat. The Rite-Temp has a built in humidifier control and I'd like to use that to control whatever I buy. Oh and for bonus points there is no 110v outlet anywhere near the furnace so whatever I get has to be able to run on the 24v transformer "C" connection. For super double bonus points, I don't want to have to run the fan all day long because the furnace closet is near the living room.

We got sick of having to fill the console humidifier twice a day so I'm trying to find a good furnace mount humidifier. Problem is nothing seems to be an ideal solution.

Drum humidifiers are a no go, atomizing humidifiers are a no go.. So what I have left is a bypass, flow-through or disk humidifier.

I've looked at Honeywell units and Desert Spring. If you believe the Desert Spring literature (http://www.desertspringproducts.com/whyHumidify/humidifierComparison.asp) the bypass and flow through humidifiers waste buttloads of water and power, which doesn't thrill me. They are talking thousands of gallons of water of difference a year, going right down the drain. If that is true I don't know that I would want that, because a nice steady stream of water going down the drain seems like such a waste.

However I know the Honeywell bypass/flow-through humidifiers are really popular and I can't believe they could be so popular if they were truly that wasteful. Also I believe they have a nice reliability record in the long term.

So then I look around and see what else there is, and this Desert Spring unit looks like the best solution on paper - it can be controlled by the 8085C, it can be run off of the 24v transformer on the furnace and even has an auto-flush accessory to make it pretty much maintenance free, while it allegedly uses far less water and power to do so.

But the reviews of the Desert Spring unit are mixed at best - some say it really does a lousy job, others swear by it - I just don't want to spend $300 and find out it sucks. It also appears to be of cheap construction, and I don't know about the long term viability of the unit. Honeywell used to have an identical unit HE160 I believe, that is now obsolete/discontinued but no one says WHY it was discontinued. Was it poor sales, or was it junk?

So my choices appear to be to either go with a tried and true solution that wastes water like nobody's business, or go with an "iffy" solution that is extremely efficient and almost maintenance free.


Anyone want to help me out here? Anyone had experience firsthand with these Desert Spring or Honeywell humidifiers? What did your water and/or power bill look like after you installed it?

For reference, our console humidifier used to go through about 8-12 gallons of water a day, we live in Indianapolis and it gets very dry inside during the cold winter months.

 

I have a bypass on my home, and I honestly don't think it really that big of a deal. It not like they run 24/7! If they do, you got issues on your house itself. I guess I never really timed mine to see what the total run time is.

I have variable speed blower, and run it all the time in the winter since they run very very quiet, so the humidifier cycles on and off as needed. That's why I asked if your system runs steady or cycles on and off often. If it cycles on and off often the humidifier will only run when the furnace itself runs.

I like the by-pass model since there not much to go wrong, and no fan noise, but if space is limited to allow the by-pass then the powered unit is next.

Bypass unit can use your 24 volts, and t-stat. Most newer equipment has a stronger transformer to handle the load. But if you use that transformer, you are going to need a sail switch or A50 relay on ANY humidifier. Buf if you use another transformer, depends on the furnace you are able to wire the transformer to powred on and off with the need of relay or switches.


Also by pass unit only need to be checked once or twice a year.. Mine I only need to clean it in the spring when I am done using the unit.

 

My furnace cycles on and off with the heat - the blower is not variable so either it's on or off. This doesn't happen that often, its generally steady for a while, shuts off for awhile. Because of that I either need to find a bypass unit that will humidify effectively only during heat cycles, or find something that will humidify with the ambient air.

I definitely don't have a lot of space to work with, the furnace is in an elongated closet with a water heater - you open the door and you have a little space in the middle, furnace on one side and W/H on the other side, only inch or two clearance on either side between the walls. However, based on the diagrams I should be able to put in either a bypass, powered flow-through, or disk humidifier.

I wish I had a way to determine how much power these units pull - I don't image the bypass or disk units use much at all, don't know how much the "powered" unit uses.

 

Are you able to post a picture for us to see your set up? (Link us to a phot host site like imageshack.us or yahoo since this site won't allow you to post photo)

Ave run time in the winter do you have in an hour?

What model and brand of furnace do you have? If have to use the powered unit, you can get the power from the furnace itself.

 

In all the excitement about finding the right humidifier, I forgot just how cramped the space is. I have almost no plenum above the A/C coils. The only thing that would fit would be an atomizing humidifier which I've read is a death sentence for the furnace (why do these things sell then?)

Anyway, here is all your picturey goodness to bask in the horrible horrible HVAC design of Crossman Communities homebuilders.

Strangely, there is about a foot of room at the very bottom right before the furnace filter, which I assume does me no good.

I suppose this means I have to get another #!@(%R@# console humidifier, unless anyone has any better ideas.

This is a pic of the furnace and W/H closet as you first open the door

http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000271pz7.jpg

This is a pic of the bottom section.. because of the angle you can't see the filter slot, it's just below where the furnace starts

http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000272bo8.jpg

And here we have the "ductwork". Houston, we have a problem.

http://img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000273qs7.jpg


Finally, in case it matters or someone wants to see if their idea might be viable, a tape measure in the shot for scale. And yes, the tape measure end is against the wall, the room really is only about 26" wide in that direction

http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000280ru6.jpg

 

Yeah.. I'd hate to say this.. You are screwed. Really no place to put anything on your system.

What is that pipe on very far right? Return? and also you have a return coming in from the under the floor as well?

 

The duct on the right is the return, it curves at the bottom and then comes back up through the furnace again. This is on the bottom floor and the house is on a slab, so concrete is under the vinyl floor.

I suppose that there is enough space I could place a smaller humidifier on the return below the filter, and then run the 6" flexible duct to the top.. above the coils there is just barely enough to cut a 6" hole. But is that even a good idea, to put the humidifier so close to the filter and furnace?

 

I don't think you are going to find anything small enough to put below the unit.. I wonder why they brought it under the furnace rather than on the side that are done on most equipment.

 

There really isn't any room. There is about 3" of space between the left wall and the side of the furnace, and then you have only about 1" of space between the furnace and the return, and the return and the right wall..

I expect they installed it this way to cram it into a very small space.

Oh well

 

I came across this as I was looking for console humidifiers...

http://www.aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductDetails&category=5&item=600


What do you think of this? Looks like all I would need is a 6" hole which I could probably manage in the duct plenum above the A/C coils. It's a bypass model which means no atomizing.

 

I don't think you are going to have enough room for this. it's going to need more than 6" space for it.