Chris wrote:
I live in the northeast US and I have a forced-air furnace with
central air and an attached humidifier but the air in the house seems
dry.

The humidifier pad looked dry so I poked around a bit and found the
humidistat plugged with dust

How is that again? If the pad looked dry and found the humidistat was
plugged? Could you mean the valve? The humidistat should not be located
near the pad - humidifier, but on the return air duct or by the thermostat.

How old is the pad. Likely it needs to be replaced.

and I blew it out with some compressed
air. I then saw a trickle of water over the pad but a week or so
later the air was still dry. I turned the humidistat up to 40% then
45% and waited a day or so each time. No (noticable) change.

Aside from foggy windows and not waking up with a dry throat, how can
you tell if a humidifier is working? What else can I tweak, clean,
etc. to get it working? (Or course, we're turning the corner from
winter into spring and I won't want extra water in the air but at
least I'll know for next winter.)

I suggest getting one of those cheap digital meters that will display
the temperature and humidity. Try some place like Brookstone or Sharper
Image. It will not be 100% accurate, but close enough.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math