Help! What is a fogger?

[greenpassion]

And where can I get one? Last winter I used a huge stainless steel pot on the stove top filled with water. I kept it steaming consistantly, which was great in the double room where my orchids live-but I want something more practical. I have been searching and searching on line, trying to learn about the best quiet most high output ones to get, but...now I see that there is a thing called a fogger. Can I use this in my house? I don't want a whole house unit, just a high output of steam to cover about 400 square feet. ??

[Orchid Whisperer]

Much more energy efficient would be an ultrasonic humidifier, ranging in price from $20 to $200, most large pharmacies or big-box stores (Lowes, Walmart, Home Depot, Target, etc. will have them, or buy online.

They also make cool-mist humidifiers which are probably fine, too, but a bit noisier.

[Nexogen]

don't forget reverse osmosis water

[Ray]

I agree with O_W - foggers are likely overkill for your application, and most that are of the size approaching "in-home" categories are just beefed-up cool-mist humidifiers, meaning they have a spinning impeller to disperse the droplets - making them relatively noisy.

Nex's warning is a good one if you use any humidification device that atomizes, rather than evaporates the water - those tiny droplets carry all of the dissolved minerals in them, and when the water evaporates, those minerals deposit on the entire contents of the room in the form of a fine, white dust. Using a water source that is mineral-free is the only way to avoid that.

[greenpassion]

I make my own RO water from a portable countertop system Ray devised for me, so water is not an issue. I wonder if he'd create an 'in-house' humidifier set up...but guess I'll keep looking.

[Ray]

I have toyed with the concept of a 5-gallon bucket containing a pump, EcoWeb as a dispersion/evaporation medium, and a small fan to propel the humidified air out, but it was too small for my application at the time. Maybe I'll revisit it.

[greenpassion]

Wow-that'd be really great. If anyone can do-you can.

[naoki]

Is your house relatively new (well sealed)? Then shouldn't 2 small humidifiers controlled by a hygrostat should be enough for 400 sqft? I made some recommendation in the following thread (the humidifier was also recommended by Consumer's Report, I think):
humidifier help

It would be interesting to see if EcoWeb works well for the DIY small swamp cooler, Ray. It could be great for grow tents where we have to control the heat from light source.