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Experience with Aprilaire 800 steam humidifier for radiant floor heating???

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acustode
acustode Member Posts: 3
in Radiant Heating

New construction in dry dry dry Colorado. Staple up hydronic radiant floor heating and engineered wood floors. We easily installed the Aprilaire 300 whole house humidifier in the crawl space and it does a good job of providing humidity BUT the vent where it releases the humidity is freezing cold and it seems like it’s cooling the rooms like a/c does and it’s competing with the warmth coming off the flooring. Would the Aprilaire 800 steam humidifier release warm/hot air into our home instead of the cooling effect of the Aprilaire 300? Thanks in advance.

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  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 15,192

    The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that you have to add the latent heat of vaporization to the water to make it a gas. The steam humidifier does that by using a lot of electricity. The evaporative humidifier does that by taking it from the air that passes over it.

    acustode
  • acustode
    acustode Member Posts: 3

    Thanks so much for your insightful reply Mattmia2. I will take the higher electrical costs into account. Do you think the steam which is vented out is actually warm or is it just not freezing cold? Also, from your experience is the fan of the 865 pretty quiet (they don’t list dB on their website for the 865 the way they do for the 300)? I’m pretty sound sensitive which is one of the reasons why we went with radiant heat in the first place. I was amazed at how much water is wasted with the Aprilaire 300 and I’m guessing this will be the same for the 865 as well?

    PFloro
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 15,192

    i don't know but i can say the steam humidifier distribution box needs to move a lot less air than the evaporative humidifier because t is just moving it around, it doesn't need to keep the air at the plates dry enough to evaporate the water.

    the instructions for the fan pack claim 50 db

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.supplyhouse.com/product_files/9f1a319925e5410cad851b9b04fa35ba7d34a9b4.pdf

    looking at the manual, it looks like it only drains water when it feels it needs to flush the canister so it probably drains a lot less water than the flow through type pad humidifier, a lot more of the water goes i to the air.

    my guess is the steam is steam hot but the fan pack dilutes it with room air and makes it cooler

  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 7,172

    With the 800, if there's no HVAC ductwork to install the steam tube, its going to need a Fan Pack.

    Screenshot_20251203_061409_Samsung Notes.jpg
    acustode

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