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humidifier on furnace


Tom7227

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My daughter needs one installed. Is it a DIY? It doesn't seem too complicated based on looking on the one I have. There is plenty of access to her furnace. Can't find much on line at Menards. Where would you get one?

Thanks for your time.

Tom

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I had one on the furnace in the old house. I had a friend install it and after watching him I'd do it myself next time. Cutting the hole wasn't bad. The worst part was running the wires up to the thermostat for the controls. He used a saddle type mount for the water line. He used to do HVAC so he picked the unit itself up at one of the supply places. I'm pretty sure I've seen them at menards though.

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Tom,

I'm pretty handy after 25 years of owing homes. In our second house, when I wasn't as handy I did the humidifier myself and all I relied on was the directions. It involves cutting a rectangular/square hole and a circular hole. Need to make sure you have the right tool for the circular hole, the cutter that is offset makes it a breeze. Other thing is tapping into a water line with the little self tapping gizmo. If it takes you two hours I'd be surprised, except you do some thinking because cutting into the duct work and tapping into the water make a fella a little nervous.

Now days a little you tube instruction and I couldn't imagine this isn't right up your alley.

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I've put a couple in... if you're handy, it's pretty straight forward. Depending on the brand, wiring can be a little challenging, but if you go slow it's pretty straight forward.

If you have the space and the orientation, going with a powered fan one would produce the best results over a bypass style, but you may not have the space or orientation to do it.

Aprilaire makes a pretty good controller with it that has an outdoor temp sensor so you're not dumping massive amounts of humidity into the house when it's really cold out (and condensing water on the windows). I've bought mine off Amazon

marine_man

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They are pretty easy (for the most part) to install and I have installed my own in the past two homes.

In my first home, I installed the cheaper version (Honeywell HE220) that takes the flow thru air from the return air duct and in my current home installed the Honeywell HE360. (this model has an electric fan that pulls air in from the room eliminating the need for pulling air from the return air duct)

Of the two I installed, I definitely like/prefer the HE360 and the directions I received with it walked me through it pretty good. Toughest part of the install was mounting/wiring an outlet for the unit to plug into for the fan that was controlled by the furnace board. Initially I tried an external outlet next to the furnace and with the constant power the fan was always running.

At some point, I may change out the humidistat to the electronic one aprilaire makes where it calculates both inside and outside temp and adjusts to keep the house at the set humidity level.

Steve

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When you guys are running humidifiers in the winter how do you deal with condensation/frost on the windows? My humidity is fairly low as it is in my house and in cold temps I get some condensation at times. I do have an air exchanger that I can adjust based on the temp outside.

It would be nice to have a system that did it automatically.

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That's where the Aprilaire Humidistat comes in handy... it adjusts your target humidity level down as it gets colder out to keep the frost off the windows.

I have a Honeywell Redlink IAQ thermostat that allows me to control my humidifier from my thermostat... it also allows me to adjust how much it ramps down the humidity as it gets colder out to prevent what you describe. I've been very happy with it.

marine_man

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I would recommend against using a saddle valve for tapping into the plumbing. I'm not a plumber or an expert of building codes, but I think that they are now below minimum code. The reason, which is why I recommend them, is that they all pretty much leak. That is, if you want to turn off the valve for some reason... chances are it'll maintain a slow drip indefinitely.

I would recommend using a legitimate valve for these. It's a lot more difficult but way better.

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my older aprilaire has a new water valve..when the plumber installed a new water heater he put in a new valve and line..the thing chatters and makes noise when i turn it on at a medium setting.. if i turn wide open the chatter stops but the water is pouring out...when i try to reach the happy medium/flow the valve seems to not be able to handle that pressure..and thats when i get noise and chatter.any ideas on how to adjust this...havent been using it since he installed it..no happy medium her.

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