On Jan 21, 12:35*pm, "Steven L." wrote:
"mm" wrote in message

:

On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:45:00 +0000, "Steven L."
wrote:

Where I live, the weather forecast for this weekend calls for outside
temps to fall below zero degrees Fahrenheit. *And I find that with the
heated indoor air being so dry, during sleep my throat gets parched at
night and my skin dries out too.

I've got a humidifier that I bought a long time ago but never used. *I'm
thinking of using it. *But the last time I used one of those, I got
condensation everywhere--the windows and window shades and even the
toilet bowl--and mold and mildew began to grow on those things.

What kind was it? *Did you have to fill it with water or did it have a
water connection?

It's one of those you fill with water and it has a wick filter.



If it had a connection, did it have a method for varying how much
humidity it put out? *I'm sure it did. *What did you set it at?

Do folks here use humidifiers and just cope with the inevitable
condensation and mold and mildew?

I don't think either mold, mildew, or condensation is inevitable.

Well....

According to my calculations, when the temperature is 70 degrees
Fahrenheit and the outdoor dew point is zero degrees Fahrenheit, the
relative humidity is only 6% (!!!).

So even raising indoor humidity to 25% is quite a lot of additional
moisture--enough to cause condensation on any surfaces (like windows)
that are cooled by outside temp.

Or do they just live with the dry
heated air during winter?

Only since my the copper screen in the water supply line in my
humidifier got clogged. *As soon as I can, I'm fixing that.

At least I'm glad to hear that other folks rely on humidifiers in winter
too.

I don't know about you, but 6% humidity (see above) makes my mouth and
throat feel incredibly parched at night.

-- Steven L.

Not an expert, but I don't think outside humidity comes into it. Nor
outside temperature, directly. What matters is how cold the inside of
your windows, frames etc get. If they get below the dewpoint for the
RH, you get condensation. I believe some furnace/whole-house
humidifiers have a sensor to measure outside temp solely so that they
can dial down the RH when it's really cold, on the basis that
otherwise you'll get condensation (don't know how they are calibrated
though...as a few of us have said, the condensation point will vary
based on the quality of windows etc).

6%! Man, after the problems we saw at 22%, I would jump into the bath
before your skin peels off.