Whole house humidifiers

[Orchidhound56]

Thanks Orchidsarefun, I think Aprilaire humidifiers are the way to go. Yes, In summer, I get 50% humidity and in the winter when the heat kicks on I get 35% humidity, story forgot to mention that. If you have a furnace and the heat kicks on, it lowers your humidity in winter.

---------- Post added at 06:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------

I have a friend who had low humidity in his house and never could grow orchids no matter what he did, he tried water trays and misting and nothing helped, then he got a whole house humidifier and now he can grow any orchids that he wants. He just recently told me about this, that's why I was asking. If you have a Furnace, when winter comes, it will lower your humidity below 35% because of the dry heat. Orchids love humidity, I don't have a problem in the summertime.

[Bud]

why humidify the whole house? I have a 2 gal. humidifier for a specific area in my apartment where my specialized orchids need it....the rest of my place is dependent on the heat and central air....

[Ferns Daddy]

I keep all my orchids in one room and use a little fog thingy and it keep the humidity about 60% most of the time I add water every day. I found it on ebay cheap
my fog maker

[RJSquirrel]

humidity in the house is never right. if it is, something else is wrong.

biggest problem in my home was not humidity, but fresh air exchanges. The plants IMO just dont get enough fresh air. If you give them higher humidity you will need more fresh air anyway. Fresh clean air will stop lots of orchid problems. Stale air indoors recirculating the same mold spores and fungal breakouts till it lands on something. Ran me right outside that did

[Orchidhound56]

I have fresh air, because I have air cleaners all over the house, so fresh air is not a problem.

[orchidsarefun]

if you have central air and a furnace, and its fairly new, isn't there a fresh air intake ? There is no recycling of stale air ? I leave my system fan on 24/7 - it doesn't only go on when the aircon/furnace is operating. I also change out the filters regularly.
If you have "leaky" windows you lose a lot of warmth/ cool air. We noticed a huge difference in the energy bills when we replaced our windows with efficient, energy star windows.

---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

I keep all my orchids in one room and use a little fog thingy and it keep the humidity about 60% most of the time I add water every day. I found it on ebay cheap
my fog maker

a whole house humidifier does this on a grand scale and you don't have to fill any reservoirs. They are not that expensive either. I was quoted $450 for a replacement but decided not to as the current one works fine.
Also handy if your orchids are spread around the house...

[LadySoren]

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

I keep all my orchids in one room and use a little fog thingy and it keep the humidity about 60% most of the time I add water every day. I found it on ebay cheap
my fog maker

That's too funny, I literally just saw one of these on Amazon tonight and thought "hmmm.... I wonder if I could use THAT as a humidifier?..."
I guess the answer is yes!

Do those give off too much humidity for phals? Maybe if it were a couple feet away or is that like defeating the purpose?

[Ferns Daddy]

It sits on the other side of the room and my phals seem to like it

[Orchidhound56]

I think I will get the Aprilaire Model 600, it looks like a good quality model. Does anyone know how much they cost with installation?