Whole House Humidifier. Will it work?

[ferrisgirl1994]

I am hoping to poke the collective brain regarding a humidity issue:

We have been having issues with low humidity this winter. With the heating running (forced hot air), the house feels too dry; to the point that we cough at nights, our skins dry considerably and sometimes wake up with bloody noses. After placing a portable humidifier in each of my daughters rooms, they seem to be doing much better. This made us contemplate the idea of installing a whole house humidifier. My HVAC provider can install one that will integrate seamlessly with my HVAC system, and would allow me to control humidity in each zone independently of the heating settings. In other words, if the house reaches the desired temperature but not the desired humidity, the blower will switch to low speed non heated air with moisture added to the flow via the humidifier. The proposed unit is a Honeywell TrueEase HE250.

I am still undecided, because on cold and dry days, the zone controllers read relative humidity at 35-38 degrees, with some bedrooms usually 2 to 3 degrees below that. So, at nights, our bedrooms' humidity can droop as low 32 degrees (we keep the temp. around 67F at nights). Everywhere I read, it states that a comfortable indoor level during dry winter days is about 35 degrees; yet we seem to be having a hard time even when our bedrooms are at those levels (32-36 aprox). I have confirmed my measurements with more than one hygrometer, so I am confident they are good.

I would be able to take humidity to the upper 30's with the whole house unit, but I wonder if that would be enough? Beyond that it's not advisable, since condensation can occur, creating a mold risk. Also, I am having a hard time believing that 35 degrees is "comfortable" given what we are experiencing. Maybe we are simply a hyper sensitive family when it comes to dryness?. What gives?

[eant]

Do u have a furance with a Variable speed,& if u do have the Communicating tstate? The he265 is good, but there is steam humidify is the best choice. Mold should not be an issue. The great thing about communicating system is that,the state will cycle the blower and turn on the Humidifier with turning the heat on.

If u don't want to do the new furance, Honeywell makes a stat called the I.a.q, it does the same thing. But the variable is the way to go. I have one in my house and would never be with out it.

[Ray]

The first post has me a bit confused.

First of all, relative humidity is measured is percent, not degrees. It is a measure of the percentage of the maximum mass of water that can be held in the air at that temperature.

For example, the air in a 1000 cubic foot room at 74°F can hold 1 pound of water. If it actually contains a half-pound, the RH is 50%.

If you maintain a constant absolute humidity (mass of water per mass of dry air), then the relative humidity will increase as the temperature decreases at night.

All that said - in my last house, we had forced-air heating, and I installed a whole-house humidifier that sprayed water into the duct down stream from the furnace. I had it set for 50% RH, and it was very comfortable. The only condensation I got was on windows that had closed dapes on them. When the drapes were left opened, they stayed dry.

[eant]

Well sounds like ur an Engineer.

[orchidsarefun]

mine is set to 50% and we......and the orchids.......are fine. Most humidifiers come with a % setting - you can adjust the setting over time to the % you are most comfortable with.
BTW - as far as I know there is no setting above 50% as that is when things start getting "dicey" in terms of mold, damage etc.

[Leafmite]

Our furnace humidifier doesn't work but, no problem, we have plenty of humidity from all the tropical plants. Orchids don't seem to provide much humidity but when you get into the other rainforest plants, many of them uptake a great amount of water and distribute it into the air to provide their own humidity (which benefits the orchids that grow among these trees and plants).
I have the same problem with dry air and when I am not at home, I always carry water and cough drops so that I can breathe. Good luck and hope you find a solution that works for you.