Central Humidifier and no Ducts

[Wes]

Hello

I've been looking for it but I can't find it. I want to install a wall mounted humidifier but we do not have forced air system.

I was watching a home improvement show a few years ago and they installed just such a device.

It had a water supply and a drain connection and it was mounted on a wall by the ceiling. It was a standalone whole house humidifier. It looked very similar to the type that you connect to a forced air system, but it was entirely standalone.

Can anyone point me to that device?

thanks.

[jadnashua]

I've never seen one. Doesn't mean they don't exist. To work reliably, you need a fan to move the air across the media. Avoid at all costs those that spray a mist into the air that then evaporates as unless you use distilled water, you'll get a nasty mineral dust all over things that can be destructive to electronics and is a nuisance for everything else.

You could hook up a portable one to a water supply with a float valve to keep it full, but haven't investigated any to see if they are capable of being wall-hung.

[Dana]

Unless you live in an extremely cold area (Edmonton, or Whitehorse, perhaps?) or high altitude (above 10k') low wintertime humidity is an indicator of an air-leaky house. Tightening up the house is preferable to injecting humidity from both a health and energy-efficiency point of view. Unmaintained humidifiers become mold-spore generators/spreaders, and detract considerably from indoor air quality.

My home (in central MA) is by no means ultra-tight, but the relative humidity hasn't dropped below 30% since I tightened up a bit. If I went whole-hog on it I'd have to put in an active ventilation system to keep the humidity down in winter (which I still might do). In summers the outdoor humidity is often higher than indoor health would dictate, so I run de-humidifiers and sometimes air conditioners to keep it under 60%. By comparison, my office (in a building that I don't own) hasn't gone above 20% relative humidity since the beginning of December. It's not super-drafty, but is obviously taking in more outdoor air than necessary.

[SteveW]

I remember seeing an episode of This Old House a number of years ago with a humidifier that was set into a wall, usually near a stairway in a 2-story house. If memory serves, was a steam unit.

[jadnashua]

Steam would work, but probably cost more than an evaporative unit. Cleaning out the mineral deposits periodically might be tougher than replacing the pad occasionally. Probably less likely to 'grow' things.