AprilAire question

[LwnmwnMan2]

My wife would like to get a humidifier, we believe it's the cause of certain things within the family, too dry of air.

She doesn't want to pay a whole lot, I don't want buy one that's just going to cover 2-3 rooms.

I'd really like to go with something like an AprilAire, and was wondering if you guys that have them could answer a couple of questions for me.

Are they mounted above the furnace, so the air that's getting blown back into the house is 'moisturized'??

Also, are they hard wired, or do they just run into a plug in, in the wall??

All of my plumbing is exposed in the utility room, so it wouldn't be hard to get a water supply.

Other than that, can you buy them at a place like Home Depot?? Or are they more specialty than that??

Also, last question, are they that hard to install??

Thanks.

[seven7]

I have one and would highly recommend it. It is nice to be able to control the humidity in the entire house. Ours was installed by the contractor when we built the house so I can't answer your technical questions. It is mounted on the duct work of the furnace and I believe it is hard wired but probably also could be plugged in. I will have one of these units in my house at all times. Good luck.

[ole]

I also have one and love it. You do need to either clean or replace the filters annually. I would have a your service provider install it. If you have service plus then no problem. That way if anything should go wrong your covered. ole

By the way mine is hand wired to the furnace. If you have HVAC skills you should be able to DIY.

[Cbreeze]

They are well worth the $$. If you have a h20 softner, tap into that line to limit the lime deposits in the filter. Set unit to normal setting to start but get a humidistat and hang on your wall. Watch the humidistat not rely on the setting. Different families create more or less humidity depending on # of people living in the home, cooking, washing clothes, taking baths...etc. Watch the humidistat for around 35-40%..perfect for most homes!

Tuna

[bgmny]

The components of the humidfier are really simple once you look at one. The Aprilaire is the most commonly used. The humidifer is mounted on the supply side of your furnace. This will be just above your A/C coil assuming you have an upflow furnace. A seperate 6 inch(usually) round duct needs to be run from the return side of your duct work and connects to the humidifier. This is what allows air to pass through the humidifier to pick up the water. A fan forced humidifer is also available which would eliminate the seperate return duct, but then needs to be wired. The regular one does not need 120 volt power, but both units need to be tied into your furnace. This allows the humidifier to run only on a call for heat from your themostat. Depending on the age of your furnace, you might already have a tap for a humidifier on the low voltage terminals inside the furnace. It's usually labeled HUM or something close to that. The humidistat is usually included when you purchase one and this is what controls the humidifier. You can choose your settings from there. The amount of humidity in your home is related to the outside air temp. The unit I would suggest has an air temp sensor that is run through a small hole in your house, usually in the mechanical room somewhere. This will automatically adjust your levels based on the outside air temp. The humifier is sized based on the square footage of your home. I would look online for an aprilaire with the outdoor air sensor sized correctly for your home. I would say somewhere around 150 bucks is what it should cost.

[18 inch Crappie]

Just put in one from Menard's paid $95 and took me 2 hours to install. Bought a gauge and it went from 25% to 35% and now the windows ice up.

[Tom7227]

You don't want the windows to ice up unless all you have is single pane windows. As an earlier post indidcates you need to get a guage that tells you what the humidity is inside the house. That thing is called a hygrometer. You can get an electronic one at any Big Box and it most likely will tell you the inside and outside temp as well.

The humidistat is the device that tells the April Air to turn on or off.

The level of humidity that is desireable in a house depends on the outside temperature. When we have large fluctuations like this weekend you actually need to adjust the humidistat.

Ok, so it gets too complicated. Simple rule - at most an inch of moisture on a window