Honeywell Enviracaire Humidifier

[markholbrook77]

Hi All,

We live in Northern Colorado where it is typically very dry. In October we had a Carrier Furnace installed and requested a humidifier be installed as well.

The unit installed is the HE225A type.

I have a Davis weather station that can monitor indoor humidity. When the Davis is sitting somewhere NOT near a heater vent it will show typically indoor values of about 20% even when the outside of the house is in the 40% range.

We have turned the humidifier control to max and we can see it pulling LOTS of water and it is plumbed using hot water.

We still don't see ANY increase in indoor humidity. We know the furnace cannot up the humidity on the entire house due to sizing but we did expect to see some increase.

As an experiment I placed the Davis monitor directly in the outflow air from the furnace. We have the circulation fan running 100% of the time to keep the humidifier active.

Even with the monitor sitting in the airflow it never moved above 20% which is the same value I see on the unit when it is sitting across the room.

To test the Davis I turned it over and breathed on it and in a few seconds it shot up to 60% so I know it is working.

Our supplier of the furnace is sort of shrugging their shoulders and saying it is working.

Is what we are seeing to be expected? Should the HE225 be able to increase our indoor humidity some?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

[markco]

Take a level to it to make sure they mounted it correctly. If it's not level, water will find the path of least resistance, and may not be going through the whole pad. Just a possibility...Also check to make sure the bypass damper is open.

[Edited by markco on 03-18-2005 at 03:57 PM]

[markholbrook77]

Hi Markco,

Thanks. I will check the level of it. From eye it does look level and I had the company out yesterday to check it out.

It definitely has power and will pull water and I can feel air moving through it when the circ fan is on.

It is plumbed using hot water and the service guy said that is intentional to try and create a little additional humidity from steam.

But we still do not see any change when it is one from the Davis sensor versus when it is off. It is like it is pulling all this water and really doing nothing with it.

Mark

[contactor]

You cannot get an accurate relative humidity reading in the supply plenum,or a register for that matter. where is your humidistat located? take a comparitive reading at this point.
Yes, get level and check this for yourself. Is the humidifier installed on duct transition that slopes? (in other words, is it mounted on a truely vertical surface?) whats ye sq.footage of home?

[markholbrook77]

Hi,

I will check the level today. It is mounted on a vertical section of the return duct just prior to entrance into the furnace.

I assume the Humidistat is the control like a thermostate for the mount of humidity. It is located about 1 foot upstream in the return duct.

As far as an accurate reading that I'm not really too interested in. I just wanted to prove to myself that the unit is indeed putting out some humidity.

My test was simple. I placed my weather monitor in its usual place and after several hours it registered a constant 20%. I then moved it to point where a duct blew straight into it. No change.

I guess my thought is that I should see some increase if the humidifier is working.

Square footage of the home is about 3300. This unit serves 1/2 of the house and we know it is insufficient to humidify the entire house.

I guess what bothers us is that it can be 40% outside and with the circ fan running and the humidifier on 100% we only see 20% inside and can never get it above that.

Mark

[contactor]

relative is lower indoors because of the higher temperature the furnace creates.The higher the air temp, the more grains of moisture it can hold.the furnace is "drying" your indoor air.
Is your honeywell humidifier a power type,or bypass type-(has a 6" pipe that goes back to the warm air plenum?)I dont have model info available now,I have an HE220A bypass in my home tho. If you have the power humidifier, It should be installed on the warm air plenum above the furnace,not on return.
Power type deliver more moisture than bypass. Steam humidifiers deliver max. Not sure of why you stated you knew that unit was inadequate initially,and it served 1/2 the home. Do you have two furnaces?

[markholbrook77]

That is what I figured. The furnace is probably drying the air. But... What I don't understand is that during the times that the burner in the furnace is not operating we are running the circulation fan. I expect that may be causing some drying as well but I would have expected as I've said to see more humidity.

Ours is a bypass type. It has the 6" pipe that goes back to the warm air duct.

The reason I expect it to be inadequate is because we do in fact have two heaters. The one that this is installed on is serving about 1/2 the house. However it is an open floorplan. The installer said he hoped that the humidity would "move" towards the dryer portion of the house.

His statement implies to me that he expected this unit to provide a fair amount of humidity. As per the instructions he set it to about 35% of full travel and warned us to adjust it down if we saw the windows condensate.

Well we see nothing of the sort after running the circ fan continuously and having the unit set to 100% of travel. That is when I got suspicious and wanted to see if it was even working and tried to take some measurements.

The 2nd furnace is in the attic and has no humidifier. We were told one could not be put on it due to freezing concerns. So we know that portion of the house will be dryer and we expect that.

Again my primary concern is with this bypass humidifier turned to 100% and it's pulling HOT water at an almost continuous rate since we run the circ fan all the time and when its not running the furnace has kicked in. I expected to see more humidity present from the unit. I'm just not seeing it.

I mean the acid test for me is if I turn the humidifier off and let things sit for a few days (still running furnace and circ fan like normal), I see our indoor humidity at about 20%.

I then crank this thing to max and it pulls ALOT of water and we run the furnace the same way and I still see 20%. This tells me the thing is not working.

The installer, while we had a great relationship with them when the two furnaces where installed (October 2004) both new Carrier units with Puron A/C condensors, the relationship is started to get strained because of what we are feeling is some price gouging.

So my concern and why I approached this forum is I believe he will (after he calls Honeywell) come back and simply say "It's pulling water, it's working". He told me that "vapor moves faster and air" That was his description for why my sensor would not read any additional humidity when right in the duct flow.

Frankly I'm a past physics major and that just doesn't compute. Also if I take my little Davis over and hold it over the boiling teapot it shoots right up to 100%.

So I simply trying to discern if the unit is working as expected and what I should expect to see. I do appreciate all of your inputs and any help is greatly appreciated.

Is there some tried and true way to determine if the unit is putting out additional humidity?

Thanks again.

Mark

[contactor]

Simple test. Let the unit run for 15-20 minutes. Shut everything down , pull out the water panel, and see if it is completley wet. Make sure all ducts are open.(to humidifier) .
I have a smaller home and my bypass humidifier strains as well, I Live close to you, and understand the problem. It sounds like you dont have a high enough capacity unit. A power unit would be helpful. I would try that 1st.
A ducted humidifier will help, costs are high tho.This would solve the attic issue.
Steam humidifiers are the way to go with capacity.
If youd like Email me at geojngl62hvac@aol.com, Code humidifier. I could stop by and look at your situation, no charge on my way to a Ft. Collins adventure.

[berad]

That unit is only good for about 1000 sq ft enclosed space.