On Saturday, November 22, 2014 9:57:48 PM UTC-5, Tony Hwang wrote:
Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 9:27:38 PM UTC-5, Tony Hwang wrote:
Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 8:22:50 PM UTC-5, Tony Hwang wrote:
Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 2:56:49 PM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 2:37:55 PM UTC-5, Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 1:38:39 PM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 12:54:35 PM UTC-5, Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 11:56:53 AM UTC-5, Tony Hwang wrote:
trader_4 wrote:
On Friday, November 21, 2014 8:52:22 PM UTC-5, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 11/21/2014 8:40 PM, Tony Hwang wrote:
panes. Panel can be reused after cleaning with CLR.

Ideally, with the flow of water through, the
panel "never needs cleaning". But nothing is
perfect.

--
.
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

The panels in those last a year to maybe 3 years, depending on
how hard the water is. For the OP:

Hi,
If your water is not hard. Digital ATD type humidity sensor hardly ever
goes out of calibration.

Thanks Tony for all the responses and thanks Stormin for helping again! Unfortunately I'm Chinese but I always wished I could understand Korean
If the flap you were referring to was the damper that controls the air flow from supply to the humidifier(the one that I could control with the horizontal/vertical switch), then yes I did double check and make sure it was fully on. I've also tried different water flow from the hot water supply, from minimum to maximum, humidity output did not change. The humidity monitor I was using was AcuRite 00613A1 Indoor Humidity Monitor. Bought from Amazon, not sure if it's okay to post links here so I'll just skip that for now. Anyways for the two years since I had it its performance had been satisfactory for me, it was able to sense humidity changes and never fluctuated when in a stable environment.

I just found out that the lowest reading this humidity monitor can have was 16%, therefore the hot air I was measuring probably was even lower than 16%, this is the main thing I was concerned about, and also why I think I might be experiencing something different from other people who has the same unit.


You said you were measuring the 16% right at the heat register. Keep in mind
that the air there is much hotter than room temperature. When that air cools
down to room temp, the humidity will be much higher than 16%. You also said
that the humidity in the room was 33% and the outside temps were as low as
29F. If you set that unit to 45%, as the outside temp drops, the unit will
automatically lower the humidity below 45%, assuming it has the outside temp
sensor connected. When it's in the 20s you probably don't want it above 40%.

Also, a furnace hunidifier can't humidify when it's not on. If it's not
very cold out, then it may not run enough to be able to boost it as high as
you want. Depending on how it's wired up, if it runs when the blower is on,
you could run the blower constantly for a while to get more humidity out of it.
You'll get humidity out, just not quite as much as you would if the furnace
was firing. You apparently have hot water going into it, so that will help.

Thanks Trader, your statement about hot air cooling down and then becoming much higher than 16% sounds reasonable, but I'm not sure if this hot/cold air difference will be able to account for the difference between the 45% and 16%. The humidifier should not sense the outside temperature because when I had it installed I specifically asked for them to not put in the automatic one, but the manual one instead.

IDK why you would not want the automatic adjustment. I wouldn't buy a unit
without it. Otherwise, you have two choices. Keep it set at a humidity
appropriate for the coldest temp, which will be less than what you'd likely
want most times, or else keep adjusting it as the temperature changes.


So the humidistat on the return duct is just a round knob pointing to different numbers, no digital display.

The older models with outside temp compensation look just like that too.



So I guess my question boils down to whether the 16% humidity right out of register is reasonable or not, if it is, I probably shouldn't even bother getting the service guy back in again. But if it's not, I'm thinking whether there are other hardware configuration problems involved that they could make improvements on.

Thanks again.

Is the humidifier always on when the furnace is running, ie it's always
trying to raise the humidity?

What is the humidity in the house? Getting static shocks? Could be
the humidity gauge you're using isn't accurate.

If it's running, you stop it and quickly check the panel, is it wet all
over? I suppose if the unit is not level or similar, water could be
flowing only over part of the panel. There should be about a pencil
size stream of water flowing out the drain hose.

I didn't want the automatic one because I wanted to be able to adjust it to a higher humidity level when my family really needs it. But again I really don't think that is the issue here.

The humidifier is constantly on when the furnace is running, when I set it to 45%, but if I set it to ~30%, it stops.

The humidity guage I was using could possibly be inacurate, but I did have 2 years of experience with it and it had been functioning well, again I'm getting another one in to make sure, but if you think the whole model is just not accurate I probably won't be able to invest more money to get something better and more accurate.

I tried checking the water panel when it was running, but I could really tell the difference between wet all over and partly wet, am I supposed to see stream on every single wire or just a very tiny thin layer of water that's hardly observable? Or just drops of water here and there? The draining water seemed to all stick to the side of the tubing and not forming a stream.

Hi,
I monitor every thing on my Davis weather station console. Right now
Outdoor temp. is 2C, indoor 20.5C steady, Dew point -2C, Outdoor
humidity 75%, Indoor 42%. Davis is pro grade instrument. In winter
time I try to keep condensation off windows keeping humidity level
proper. My humidifier is tied to furnace blower, so whenever blower
runs it does too.

Thanks Tony for the info! As I remember you only set your humidifier to
30% to 35%? If you are getting 42% humidity from that same exact humidifier, in your much bigger house. I really don't see why mine can only get to 37% when set to 45%. Maybe it's just like what trader said, my furnace is not blowing enough. But really I felt the driest when the furnace was blowing.

Hi,
Today weather is mild so humidity can be high like that but when cold
like -30C I have to keep humidity down around 30% or little bit less
to prevent condensation. Summer time, a/c is running so humidifier is
shut off. Usually humidistat is mounted side by side with thermostat.
If you can turn on the fan on your thermostat, it'll circulate air
in the house for more even temp. and humidifier can run too. Usually
furnace cycles like 3 times an hour or so, but if you let the fan run
all the time, humidifier will run all the time too.

Hi Tony,

My humidifier is probabaly configured differently than yours, because when I
turn the fan to on instead off auto, the water supply to the humidifier doesn't turn on. It only runs when the heat is on.

Hi,
Usually furnace control board has terminals marked "HUM" meaning
humidifier hook up there. Simply humidifier solenoid needs 24V AC
in series with humidistat. When humidity is called for contacts in the
humidistat makes supplying the 24V AC power to the solenoid. Aprilaire
package comes with a small 24V AC transformer for this purpose. In case
there is no "HUM" terminals. Then power source has to be tied into
blower power utilising that transformer. Turning fan on does not start
humidifier? you better call the service tech and ask him to make it work
like it should. Being a retired EE I always tell HVAC service techs
leave electrical part to me, don't bother with it. Once I teased a guy
who installed my high efficiency furnace and a/c for an upgrade, I asked
him to install wireless thermostat I got, he did not want to saying he
never installed one. I wish I were your neighbor, I could straighten
things out for you like nothing. Is your name 姜? My BIL
who is HVAC commercial estimator, mechanical engineer's name is 姜大薰.
Come to think of it, maybe they made the humidifier to come on when heat
comes on which is not ideal.

Hi Tony, sorry I didn't reply earlier, passed out with my crying son last night XD. I will definitely ask the service tech about hooking the unit up with blower power. Haha if you were my neighbor it would be a lot of fun, cuz I've always been interested in EE, but I'm a bio major. My last name is actually 康, not sure if the character displays fine on your screen though...