I kind of depends on your location and how dry the house gets. I'd personally go for steam because it doesn't require the thermostat to be calling for heating for the humidifier to work. I've also seen too many fan powered and bypass humidifiers leaking because of bad installations.

 

Depends on your type of heating system, amount of humidity needed, quality of water supply, and availability of room to mount equipment. I have a heat pump, and recommend steam humidifiers due to low air temperature of the heated air. They work better without a water softener. If you have a softener and a gas or electric furnace, evaporation type humidifiers are fine. A bypass humidifier is less efficient than a fan powered unit at water used. Some bypass models might use 14 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of vapor. Steam models use 1 to 1.

 

Colorado. My googling tells me winter humidity is between 30-40%.

Steam adds a lot of cost, but, I appreciate the advice. I will consider that.

System: Gas XC80 - that I hope does not run much. XV18 Heat Pump which I hope handles most of the heat. TCONT850 thermostat.

 

I would go with the steam. You have good equipment but with the heat pump which will run a lot you will not have the heat needed to evaporate most of the water out the the bypass or powered. That means you will run a lot of water down the drain and get little from it and it could cause the pad to fill prematurely, depending on mineral content of the water.

 

That depends on the size of the house, how tight it is and how much humidity is needed.

Bypass are fine if you don't have a huge need. There is a little loss of capacity of the system because of bypassed air and the evaporation of the water.

Powered give a bit more humidity. They are a bit more restrictive on location and a bit more noisy. (fan noise).

Steam will give the greatest amount of humidity but it comes with a greater upfront cost and operating cost.

 

Steam will give the greatest amount of humidity but it comes with a greater upfront cost and operating cost.

I can see the upfront cost, but, can you explain to me the ongoing operating cost of steam and why it is higher than other choices?

 

2400 sq ft, not tight (1973)

 

I have seen calcium build up problems with steam. I like the Aprilaire fan powered the best. The nice thing about it is that you can cause it to energize the water flow and fan even of the furnace or heat pump is not running.

Make sure you hook up the water to the hot ;ine straight off the hot water heater. If you have if set to 120-130 degrees, even if the heater is not running you will get humidity.

 

Thanks. I have no water softener. I have no idea if the are hard water issues. But, I have not noticed any issue in 2 years of living here. Living in other parts of the country, in 2 years without a softener, I would have buildup on all the fixtures.

 

Steam humidifiers run on high voltage, either 115V or 208/230V, so they'll use more power to run. Since they don't rely on the system to be actively heating to work they'll also run more to try to achieve desired humidity levels. Hard water won't matter for something like an Aprilaire steam because the canister is disposable. Steam humidifiers like the old EWC or Honeywell that just had a heating element can scale up pretty quickly and they're a challenge to clean.

 

In the middle of the winter with a properly sized heater a bypass “Should” be sufficient.

 

Be careful of a steam unit. They do such a good job they are capable of over humidifying which can lead to mildew, mold, and rot.
Either bypass or fan are likely to be fine. The layout of your system may dictate which will be easier to install.

 

We keep the hot water heater at the highest possible setting. Can it ever be too hot for a humidifier?

 

Not sure what temperature you keep it at.

You could always call the manufacturer and ask for the max temperature allowed.

 

I found the aprilaire manual says 140 degrees max. I'll check with a thermometer tomorrow to see if I'm under that.

 

140.5 degrees at a sink. Close enough?

 

You should be fine with that.

But I do wonder why you have the water heater set so high. Most people keep it between 120 & 130 degrees. I know it is great for the dishwasher to keep it a little higher, but that is scalding temperature.