humidifying?

John Ketterman

will the TrueSteams work in hydronically heated houses? In other words, do they have blowers like the GeneralAire Elite RS15?

Joe R_2

humidifying?

Hi.
I have gas forced hot air heat, I was looking to add an aprilaire humidifying unit and possibly an in-line filtration unit and I'm wondering if this is a good idea or not. The unit has just a basic filter at the return right now. Do the fitering units work and do the humidifying units cause any problems with mold?
Thanks,
Joe

lee_7

Go with a Honeywell TRUESTEAM humidifier when they become available. It is an awesome unit and truely works like they say they do. I have 3 sold and many many more interested. I can't wait to get them.

Brad White_185

Mold and Humidifiers

That is a topic worthy of a book but here are some points you may find helpful.

1. Mold is everywhere, at least in dormant spore form. "Just add water". And food- starch, cellulose, any number of nutrient bases.

2. If a system uses steam generation or a wetted pad which dries out between cycles, there is either no standing water or a direct sterilization effect. Standing water (paddle-wheel) units? Asking for trouble even with bleed-off.

3. Molds, depending on the species, can take hold and support themselves via moisture from the air itself when it is 65% RH more or less. Mildew is one of the early bloomers. Thus if the RH is say 70% for prolonged periods, the mold spores can take hold and thrive. Keep it dry, no problem. Just because you do not see standing water does not mean that you are out of the woods.

4. The use of UV lights (UV-C spectrum) is one option I promote especially on the leaving side of a cooling coil. Sunburn the little buggers...

My $0.02

Brad

mel rowe

To 3lees, how do you know that the TrueSteam humidifier "works like they say they do"? I thought they were not available yet. I wonder how many hours of the day the TrueSteam humidifier has to run to achieve its stated output of water vapor? And what is the power draw required by the unit to accomplish this. My experience with a steam humidifier has been that it costs more initially, costs more to run, costs more for maintenance replacement parts, and had lots of cleaning issues that caused water overflow on several occasions. This is in comparison with my currently installed Aprilaire 600, with which I change the evap. panel once a year and forget about it. FWIW

lee_7

From the model and their training program. Check out their website and see for yourself. It looked like a great product and appears to be very economical to work. Just my opinion. I also install aprilaire 600 and 700. This just looks like a great alternative to them, with much less water wasted. The ability for the humidifier to turn on regardless of call for heat is a GREAT selling point for me.

Constantin

And if you can't wait,

the Nortec in my home has worked very well for us.

mel rowe

I agree that the new design steam humidifiers look like a better design than the older version; however, we won't really know until there are enough installed and run for a while to see what really happens regarding buildup of minerals on the coil and the mechanisms that control the water level and flow. Other aspects, as I mentioned, are the much higher initial cost for the steam unit, higher operating costs, higher costs to replace filters, etc., and potential operating problems from mineral buildup. From my experience I know that to evaporate 12 gallons of water a day with the previous steam unit was costing me about $90 per month for electricity, because the power draw was 1500 watts. The Aprilaire costs me considerably less, even with the continuous water flow of hot water required, since my air handler is pushing room temperature air. By the way I have no connection to Aprilaire, I'm just telling you my experience and my opinion.

John Ketterman

Evaporating water is never free. the Aprilaires are basically desert coolers, they steal latent heat from the air in the duct and so they cool it. Less electricity consumption by the humidifier, but more gas consumption by the furnace. Since gas is cheaper, you save money, but not as much as you seem to think.

lee_7

no you need ductwork and a blower motor

mel rowe

Jcricket, you are correct that you don't save the total amount of the electricity bill for the steam unit, but by my calculations I am saving about $25-30 monthly, during operation, even using room temperature air and hot water flowing over the evaporative pad. And of course there are the other savings I mentioned for the lower initial cost for the hardware, lower annual cost for the replacement filters/pads and the fewer operating problems I've had with the Aprilaire. In view of all these results, I'm not quite sure why a steam unit should be considered, especially for a scorched air system.

hvacfreak

Spaceguard Air Cleaners

They're not called this anymore ( Media air cleaners now..reason unknown to me ) ...but it works well for me. My equipment and supply air duct is as clean as when I installed it ( unlike " electronic units that seem to drop black dust or whatever ). Nortec steam humidifers are the best I've seen...if they have a residential model I'm sure it's the best ( the last ones I put in were like 4ft by 3 ft ).

edit : and a steam humidifier could operate with the furnace fan or ahu fan on a call for humidification or for ac only systems ).