My home is about 3000sqft, with lots of high ceilings.
I'm having trouble keeping the relative humidity up in the winter. When it gets down to 10F outside, the RH drops down as low as 25%. This is WITH a bypass humidifier installed. (filter new, water flow seems good).
Have read that many people have similar experiences with evaporative bypass humidifiers. They just can't add enough humidity to keep up.
The only solution so far is either 1) Honeywell TrueSTEAM, 2) Aprilaire 800 steam humidifier.
I understand that these steam humidifiers use quite a bit of energy in generating the steam. They also seem expensive and some of them unreliable.
My proposed setup is this: 1) Reverse Osmosis water filtration system ($150-200), 2) High output ultrasonic fogger/humidifier ($50-100), 3) Small fan ($10). The output of this would be piped into the current bypass humidifier housing.
Why hasn't something like this been done yet? It seems like the biggest hurdle for ultrasonic humidifiers is the white dust / vaporized minerals in the water. Any HVAC professionals that could comment on this sort of setup? I surely don't want to ruin my furnace.
Best Answer
I've thought the same but think you want a fairly big fan. You are fighting to keep the ultrasonic droplets from condensing on surfaces. You need to supply enough air flow for them to evaporate and not condense. Position the output somewhere where a dribble caused by condensation won't wreck a motor or electronics