Whole home Dehumidifiers?

[Papa Deuce]

Any ideas what one should cost for a 1600 SF home? And do you think they do the job well?

My mom wants one but she is only planning on living in the home for another 18 months so she may not get one if it is too expensive or not likely to do a great job.

 

[Melrosgirl]

Not sure if this will be any help at all for you, but we just had a whole home HUMIDIFIER installed on our heating system (natural gas furnace) and it was $700 installed including the humidifier. (Our house tends to get dry during the winter with the heat on and we all end up getting scratchy throats all winter, so we thought this might help.) That's a humidifier though for 3000 sf.

 

[golfgal]

Are you sure she wants a dehumidifier? Generally the AC unit takes care of that in the summer and it isn't needed in the winter.

 

[nhpooh]

I have a dehumidifier in my basement in the summer. Half of the basement is finished so we needed it for the stuff down there. It's portable and I think it cost about $100 - $200. You do have to empty it, or you could have it piped to a sink or outside. My mother has her's piped outside.

 

[AlexTina]

Not sure if this will be any help at all for you, but we just had a whole home HUMIDIFIER installed on our heating system (natural gas furnace) and it was $700 installed including the humidifier. (Our house tends to get dry during the winter with the heat on and we all end up getting scratchy throats all winter, so we thought this might help.) That's a humidifier though for 3000 sf.

I didn't know you could have one installed, that sounds so wonderful!! We are in New Mexico and the minute I turn on the furnace everyone wakes up daily with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat it's awful. In the middle of winter when the furnace is running regularly the humidity in our house stands at about 20%, I know they say anything under 35 - 40% is unhealthy so needless to say I have humidifiers running throughout the house, it's incredibly inconvinient though and doesn't help all that much (I don't think their large enough). With this installed humidifier, do you have to add water or is it linked to your water somehow? This sounds like it would be perfect for us.

Tina

 

[Charade]

I didn't know you could have one installed, that sounds so wonderful!! We are in New Mexico and the minute I turn on the furnace everyone wakes up daily with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat it's awful. In the middle of winter when the furnace is running regularly the humidity in our house stands at about 20%, I know they say anything under 35 - 40% is unhealthy so needless to say I have humidifiers running throughout the house, it's incredibly inconvinient though and doesn't help all that much (I don't think their large enough). With this installed humidifier, do you have to add water or is it linked to your water somehow? This sounds like it would be perfect for us.

Tina

We have a whole house (attached to the furnace ductwork) humidifier.

This is the one we have.

http://www.aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductDetails&category=5&item=600


Had it installed when I moved in this house. I swore I would never live in a house again without one. I HATE the dry are in the winter. It makes a huge difference. You get the water to it via piping that taps into your existing water lines.

There are a couple of different kinds. One that just "injects" water into the air whenever the furnace runs and one that uses a filter media that the water drips through as the air passes through it whenever the furnace runs.

You have to replace the filter media each year (or more often if you use it year round). Also, you don't want too much humidity as it can cause mildew and mold. Follow the instructions.

Ours also has a humidistat that allows us to adjust the amount of humidity. We also have an outdoor temp sensor that prevents the unit from running if the temp is too high.

 

[Charade]

Any ideas what one should cost for a 1600 SF home? And do you think they do the job well?

My mom wants one but she is only planning on living in the home for another 18 months so she may not get one if it is too expensive or not likely to do a great job.

http://www.aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductsCat&category=dehumid

 

[Melrosgirl]

We have a whole house (attached to the furnace ductwork) humidifier.

This is the one we have.

http://www.aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductDetails&category=5&item=600


Had it installed when I moved in this house. I swore I would never live in a house again without one. I HATE the dry are in the winter. It makes a huge difference. You get the water to it via piping that taps into your existing water lines.

There are a couple of different kinds. One that just "injects" water into the air whenever the furnace runs and one that uses a filter media that the water drips through as the air passes through it whenever the furnace runs.

You have to replace the filter media each year (or more often if you use it year round). Also, you don't want too much humidity as it can cause mildew and mold. Follow the instructions.

Ours also has a humidistat that allows us to adjust the amount of humidity. We also have an outdoor temp sensor that prevents the unit from running if the temp is too high.

Ditto. We just had our humidifier installed and since we turned the heat on this week, I can notice a difference. I can tell the air isn't as dry. Ours is hooked into our water lines. It took about 6 hours to install (professional installers).

 

[AlexTina]

Thanks for all the info. This is great!!

Tina