Melissa2007B
Member
We're in Denver and have had the Aprilaire 360 in the wall of the laundry room, humidifying the whole house, since 2005. It's even running now, as we have asthma and use it all year, due to the dryness here.
It's a great unit, but it causes "stacking" in the gas water heater and we've already had to replace one. It manifests as very hot black water coming out, so that's apparently the water heater tank eroding from too much burn time. ( it doesn't happen when the humidifier isn't in use )
So I's like to add a "point of use" water heater and move the humidifier water line from the hot side to the cold side. That would eliminate the problem.
So I just asked Aprilaire about how much water this humidifier uses per hour, and they replied:
Hello Melissa,
The 360 uses about a tenth of a gallon of water a minute (rated at 6 gallons per hour).
This means the flow rate of the humidifier is usually not enough to trigger on demand water heaters to heat the water. ...
Thank you,
Eric
So if I move the line from hot to cold, and install one of these, and set the temp to the 140 degrees suggested by Aprilaire, what type would I need, what capacity, and what amperage? I'm looking online, searching on: point of use water heater 120vac
Do these small units use phased heating instead of on/off? I'm asking because it may have to be plugged into the washer/dryer 120VAC circuit and if one of those is on, we don't want it tripping a breaker if it draws 1400 watts.
It SOUNDS like, if t uses phased heating, it might never need that much.
I need to plan this and buy the minimum unit necessary - not just from a cost perspective.
Thoughts?
It's a great unit, but it causes "stacking" in the gas water heater and we've already had to replace one. It manifests as very hot black water coming out, so that's apparently the water heater tank eroding from too much burn time. ( it doesn't happen when the humidifier isn't in use )
So I's like to add a "point of use" water heater and move the humidifier water line from the hot side to the cold side. That would eliminate the problem.
So I just asked Aprilaire about how much water this humidifier uses per hour, and they replied:
Hello Melissa,
The 360 uses about a tenth of a gallon of water a minute (rated at 6 gallons per hour).
This means the flow rate of the humidifier is usually not enough to trigger on demand water heaters to heat the water. ...
Thank you,
Eric
So if I move the line from hot to cold, and install one of these, and set the temp to the 140 degrees suggested by Aprilaire, what type would I need, what capacity, and what amperage? I'm looking online, searching on: point of use water heater 120vac
Do these small units use phased heating instead of on/off? I'm asking because it may have to be plugged into the washer/dryer 120VAC circuit and if one of those is on, we don't want it tripping a breaker if it draws 1400 watts.
It SOUNDS like, if t uses phased heating, it might never need that much.
I need to plan this and buy the minimum unit necessary - not just from a cost perspective.
Thoughts?