I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

The furnace and humidifier were installed by a local contractor.
I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning. And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the second floor registers where the hot air comes out. The humidity reading had been between 45% and 50% until about 2 weeks ago.

Two weeks ago the weather here really started to drop(ranging between 29 degree and 50 degree). And shortly after I started to feel air being dry at night. The humidity reading in the bedroom was somewhere around 33%. And when I put the humidistat right by the register(when the furnace is on and outputting hot air), it read 16%, that's what I was concerned about.

Here's the current information about the humidifier:

I hear the water flowing when the furnace is on, when I open it I see water in the distribution chamber and flowing through the four holes. I also see water flowing down the drain and feel hot air supply coming from the open damper.

I called the contractor company a few days ago, a service guy came in and said everything was fine, then he said my 4 inch air filter was plugged, therefore humidity couldn't go through. He charged me for a new air filter and a partial service call, because no faulty equipment was found, even though they told me the filter would last a year when they sold it to me. I was fine with everything if the problem was resolved, but the thing is, for the two days after the filter was replaced, the humidity reading by the register was still 16%. I actually personally went into a hardware store and bought a brand new water panel for the humidifier, still no improvement on humidity.

Me and my wife just had a baby 3 weeks ago and my wife had had this coughing problem for a long time, she feels much better when the air is not dry, so I was trying to give them the most comfort I can by getting the new furnace and humidifier. I'm not sure what kind of humidity level others feel good about, but we really hope we can get to around 45% here. Hope someone can help and sorry about the long post.

On 11/21/2014 6:53 PM, Hongyi Kang wrote:
I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm
posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3
months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM
furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole
house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've
been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so
furnace officially started working since late September.

The furnace and humidifier were installed by a local
contractor.
I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very
beginning. And I have another small humidistat
clipped right on one of the second floor registers
where the hot air comes out. The humidity reading
had been between 45% and 50% until about 2 weeks ago.

Two weeks ago the weather here really started to
drop(ranging between 29 degree and 50 degree). And
shortly after I started to feel air being dry at night.
The humidity reading in the bedroom was somewhere
around 33%. And when I put the humidistat right by
the register(when the furnace is on and outputting
hot air), it read 16%, that's what I was concerned about.

Here's the current information about the humidifier:

I hear the water flowing when the furnace is on, when I
open it I see water in the distribution chamber and flowing
through the four holes. I also see water flowing down the
drain and feel hot air supply coming from the open damper.

I called the contractor company a few days ago, a service
guy came in and said everything was fine, then he said my 4
inch air filter was plugged, therefore humidity couldn't go
through. He charged me for a new air filter and a partial
service call, because no faulty equipment was found, even
though they told me the filter would last a year when they
sold it to me. I was fine with everything if the problem
was resolved, but the thing is, for the two days after the
filter was replaced, the humidity reading by the register
was still 16%. I actually personally went into a hardware
store and bought a brand new water panel for the humidifier,
still no improvement on humidity.

Me and my wife just had a baby 3 weeks ago and my wife had
had this coughing problem for a long time, she feels much
better when the air is not dry, so I was trying to give them
the most comfort I can by getting the new furnace and
humidifier. I'm not sure what kind of humidity level others
feel good about, but we really hope we can get to around
45% here. Hope someone can help and sorry about the long post.

Some Aprilaire have what's known as a bypass damper,
or valve. On some, there is a round disk that opens
or closes the round tube that comes from the other
duct. This needs to be open (handle points horizontal)
for the unit to work.

If you have AC, this needs to be closed (handle up and
down) for summer.

Please let us know how this works for you.

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

Thanks for the reply, the damper has been open the whole time. I could feel hot air coming from it when I open the humidifier.

On 11/21/2014 7:21 PM, Hongyi Kang wrote:
Thanks for the reply, the damper has been open
the whole time. I could feel hot air coming from
it when I open the humidifier.


That was the only answer I could find. Please
call your service tech back to your house.

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

Thanks Stormin for the effort! Really appreciate it!

On 11/21/2014 8:13 PM, Hongyi Kang wrote:
Thanks Stormin for the effort! Really appreciate it!


Quite all right. I worked in heating for years,
and installed a lot of Aprilaire humidifiers.

I also live in western NY. My humidifier is portable,
I have to fill it with a bucket.

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

Hongyi Kang wrote:
Thanks Stormin for the effort! Really appreciate it!

Hi,
I have exactly same humidifier in my house(2600 sq ft 2 story with
finished basement) This humidifier is bypass type, so is the flap
controlling the air passing thru the water panel open? Or partially open
or closed? Also check if you can open the water cock more for
more water flow.
Hot air has to pass thru the panel to moisten the room air. Also
humidity has to be set in relation to outside temperature. During winter
I leave it at 30 to 35% and no higher to prevent condensation on window
panes. Panel can be reused after cleaning with CLR. Are you Chinese or
Korean? ì*€ëŠ” í•œêµ*ì�¸ìž…니다. Hope this helps.

On 11/21/2014 8:13 PM, Hongyi Kang wrote:
Thanks Stormin for the effort! Really appreciate it!


I learned about the damper from the thread. Didn't know I had one and
don't shut it off. Have to do that next summer.

I don't measure humidity but Aprilaire seems to work OK but things do
dry out in the winter. I put in a new pad every year as old has a lot
of salts precipitated around it although I think it could work for a
couple of years without change.

On 11/21/2014 05:53 PM, Hongyi Kang wrote:
I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

The furnace and humidifier were installed by a local contractor.
I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning. And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the second floor registers where the hot air comes out. The humidity reading had been between 45% and 50% until about 2 weeks ago.

Two weeks ago the weather here really started to drop(ranging between 29 degree and 50 degree). And shortly after I started to feel air being dry at night. The humidity reading in the bedroom was somewhere around 33%. And when I put the humidistat right by the register(when the furnace is on and outputting hot air), it read 16%, that's what I was concerned about.

Here's the current information about the humidifier:

I hear the water flowing when the furnace is on, when I open it I see water in the distribution chamber and flowing through the four holes. I also see water flowing down the drain and feel hot air supply coming from the open damper.

I called the contractor company a few days ago, a service guy came in and said everything was fine, then he said my 4 inch air filter was plugged, therefore humidity couldn't go through. He charged me for a new air filter and a partial service call, because no faulty equipment was found, even though they told me the filter would last a year when they sold it to me. I was fine with everything if the problem was resolved, but the thing is, for the two days after the filter was replaced, the humidity reading by the register was still 16%. I actually personally went into a hardware store and bought a brand new water panel for the humidifier, still no improvement on humidity.

Me and my wife just had a baby 3 weeks ago and my wife had had this coughing problem for a long time, she feels much better when the air is not dry, so I was trying to give them the most comfort I can by getting the new furnace and humidifier. I'm not sure what kind of humidity level others feel good about, but we really hope we can get to around 45% here. Hope someone can help and sorry about the long post.




I have a similar setup in my own house and when the unit is working
properly, there should be some drainage from the over-flow hose at the
bottom.

If there is nothing coming out, then not enough water is going in.

Check to be sure the water stop-cock is open far enough and also clean
out calcium deposits at the water orifice inside the humidifier if it
looks like only a small amount of water is flowing through the feeder holes.

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Saturday, November 22, 2014 4:42:22 PM UTC-5, Don Wiss wrote:
On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

I will have to learn how to post with carriage return then. Sorry about the inconvenience.

On 11/22/2014 4:56 PM, Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Saturday, November 22, 2014 4:42:22 PM UTC-5, Don Wiss wrote:
On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please
let me know if I'm posting things at
the wrong place. I recently (3 months
ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM
furnace and along with it an Aprilaire
600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate
New York here, I've been setting the
the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace
officially started working since late
September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

I will have to learn how to post with
carriage return then. Sorry about the
inconvenience.


Don, the modern generation has no idea what is a
carriage, and less idea what is a carriage return.
That may take some explaining to computer users.

I some times have to reply, and then insert the
carriage returns as I've done with the quoted
text.

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

On Sat, 22 Nov 2014, Stormin Mormon wrote:

Don, the modern generation has no idea what is a
carriage, and less idea what is a carriage return.
That may take some explaining to computer users.

In the OP's header I find: User-Agent: G2/1.0
Which I find he http://www.g2reader.com/en/

I would think it has a setting someplace. But it appears to be a simple app
and not a regular application for a desktop computer. So maybe no settings.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 17:20:42 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Sat, 22 Nov 2014, Stormin Mormon wrote:

Don, the modern generation has no idea what is a
carriage, and less idea what is a carriage return.
That may take some explaining to computer users.

In the OP's header I find: User-Agent: G2/1.0
Which I find he http://www.g2reader.com/en/

I can't look here right now.

I would think it has a setting someplace. But it appears to be a simple app
and not a regular application for a desktop computer. So maybe no settings.

I've seen User-Agent: G2/1.0 many times, for years, and I thought it was
a regular application program.


Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 16:42:15 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).


Don, you're using Agent 1.93, the same as I am. I was about to tell
you to just turn on word wrap, with O.

But I looked at his op and found that it looked the same with wordwrap
on or not. And its lines are only about 70 characters, though they
all end with = except the last line in a paragraph.

So obviously one of Agent's other many parameters is set different for
you and me. I don't want to go over ever singlee one of them, but if
you have a couple suggestions, I'll check what my settings are.

You're right, when I reply to the OP and quote it, each paragraph is one
line with one in front of it. But it still only spans the width of
my not new, not wide monitor. There is a scroll bar at the bottom,
though nothing to the right to scroll to. Of course I'm in full-screen
mode (for Agent and anything else that will go full screen.)

On Saturday, November 22, 2014 5:42:43 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 16:42:15 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).


Don, you're using Agent 1.93, the same as I am. I was about to tell
you to just turn on word wrap, with O.

But I looked at his op and found that it looked the same with wordwrap
on or not. And its lines are only about 70 characters, though they
all end with = except the last line in a paragraph.

So obviously one of Agent's other many parameters is set different for
you and me. I don't want to go over ever singlee one of them, but if
you have a couple suggestions, I'll check what my settings are.

You're right, when I reply to the OP and quote it, each paragraph is one
line with one in front of it. But it still only spans the width of
my not new, not wide monitor. There is a scroll bar at the bottom,
though nothing to the right to scroll to. Of course I'm in full-screen
mode (for Agent and anything else that will go full screen.)



On Saturday, November 22, 2014 5:42:43 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 16:42:15 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).


Don, you're using Agent 1.93, the same as I am. I was about to tell
you to just turn on word wrap, with O.

But I looked at his op and found that it looked the same with wordwrap
on or not. And its lines are only about 70 characters, though they
all end with = except the last line in a paragraph.

So obviously one of Agent's other many parameters is set different for
you and me. I don't want to go over ever singlee one of them, but if
you have a couple suggestions, I'll check what my settings are.

You're right, when I reply to the OP and quote it, each paragraph is one
line with one in front of it. But it still only spans the width of
my not new, not wide monitor. There is a scroll bar at the bottom,
though nothing to the right to scroll to. Of course I'm in full-screen
mode (for Agent and anything else that will go full screen.)

I kind of get what carriage return means here now, I guess the paragraphs I
typed all just went into one single line? I'm pressing enter at the end of
every line I'm typing now, hope that will help! I'm just using google
chrome on a desktop computer to read and post right now. Not sure if there
is any app i'm using.

On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 14:58:19 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:

On Saturday, November 22, 2014 5:42:43 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 16:42:15 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).


Don, you're using Agent 1.93, the same as I am. I was about to tell
you to just turn on word wrap, with O.

But I looked at his op and found that it looked the same with wordwrap
on or not. And its lines are only about 70 characters, though they
all end with = except the last line in a paragraph.

So obviously one of Agent's other many parameters is set different for
you and me. I don't want to go over ever singlee one of them, but if
you have a couple suggestions, I'll check what my settings are.

You're right, when I reply to the OP and quote it, each paragraph is one
line with one in front of it. But it still only spans the width of
my not new, not wide monitor. There is a scroll bar at the bottom,
though nothing to the right to scroll to. Of course I'm in full-screen
mode (for Agent and anything else that will go full screen.)



On Saturday, November 22, 2014 5:42:43 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 16:42:15 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Hongyi Kang wrote:

I'm extremely new here so please let me know if I'm posting things at the wrong place. I recently (3 months ago) installed a new Trane 2 stage ECM furnace and along with it an Aprilaire 600 whole house Humidifier. It's upstate New York here, I've been setting the the thermostat to 73 degree, so furnace officially started working since late September.

You are in the right place. But your posting with no carriage returns makes
it very hard to read your posts. One has to scroll back and forth.

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).


Don, you're using Agent 1.93, the same as I am. I was about to tell
you to just turn on word wrap, with O.

But I looked at his op and found that it looked the same with wordwrap
on or not. And its lines are only about 70 characters, though they
all end with = except the last line in a paragraph.

So obviously one of Agent's other many parameters is set different for
you and me. I don't want to go over ever singlee one of them, but if
you have a couple suggestions, I'll check what my settings are.

You're right, when I reply to the OP and quote it, each paragraph is one
line with one in front of it. But it still only spans the width of
my not new, not wide monitor. There is a scroll bar at the bottom,
though nothing to the right to scroll to. Of course I'm in full-screen
mode (for Agent and anything else that will go full screen.)

I kind of get what carriage return means here now, I guess the paragraphs I
typed all just went into one single line? I'm pressing enter at the end of
every line I'm typing now, hope that will help!

Yes, Enter is a carriage return (CR) It does help a lot, but you
shouldn't have to do that. Still, Don knows more than I do about
electronics, so he probably knows more than I here too.


I'm just using google
chrome on a desktop computer to read and post right now.

I think it takes more than that. Are you at a particular website,
like groups.google.com?


Not sure if there
is any app i'm using.

I am indeed on groups.google.com

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 15:53:27 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:

I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning.
And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the
second floor registers where the hot air comes out.

Just FYI ... the control device is a humidistat. The sensor (or gauge)
is a hygrometer.

You'd be surprised how much difference temperature makes in how much
water air can hold. I found a calculator at

http://andrew.rsmas.miami.edu/bmcnoldy/Humidity.html

and plugged in some of the numbers you'd quoted. It doesn't convert
directly from RH at one temperature to RH at another temperature, so
you have to take it in two steps.

If the temperature is 72F and the relative humidity is 45%, then the
dewpoint is about 50F.

If the dewpoint is 50F and the relative humidity is 16%, then the
temperature is 105F.

And 105F coming out of a register from a gas furnace is reasonable.

So yes, it's quite reasonable that the RH could be 16% at the register
and 45% in the middle of the room. Or IOW, 16% RH at 105F and 45% RH
at 72F are the same *absolute* humidity.

Edward

Edward Reid wrote:
On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 15:53:27 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:

I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning.
And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the
second floor registers where the hot air comes out.

Just FYI ... the control device is a humidistat. The sensor (or gauge)
is a hygrometer.

You'd be surprised how much difference temperature makes in how much
water air can hold. I found a calculator at

http://andrew.rsmas.miami.edu/bmcnoldy/Humidity.html

and plugged in some of the numbers you'd quoted. It doesn't convert
directly from RH at one temperature to RH at another temperature, so
you have to take it in two steps.

If the temperature is 72F and the relative humidity is 45%, then the
dewpoint is about 50F.

If the dewpoint is 50F and the relative humidity is 16%, then the
temperature is 105F.

And 105F coming out of a register from a gas furnace is reasonable.

So yes, it's quite reasonable that the RH could be 16% at the register
and 45% in the middle of the room. Or IOW, 16% RH at 105F and 45% RH
at 72F are the same *absolute* humidity.

Edward

Hi,
Every house I had custom built and lived in always had humidistat
mounted side by side with thermostat. In present house I upgraded to
wireless thermostat which I can move around in the house and humidity
is monitored by humidistat still at location next to thermostat used to
be on a wall.

On Monday, November 24, 2014 6:35:53 PM UTC-5, Edward Reid wrote:
On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 15:53:27 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:

I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning.
And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the
second floor registers where the hot air comes out.

Just FYI ... the control device is a humidistat. The sensor (or gauge)
is a hygrometer.

You'd be surprised how much difference temperature makes in how much
water air can hold. I found a calculator at

http://andrew.rsmas.miami.edu/bmcnoldy/Humidity.html

and plugged in some of the numbers you'd quoted. It doesn't convert
directly from RH at one temperature to RH at another temperature, so
you have to take it in two steps.

If the temperature is 72F and the relative humidity is 45%, then the
dewpoint is about 50F.

If the dewpoint is 50F and the relative humidity is 16%, then the
temperature is 105F.

And 105F coming out of a register from a gas furnace is reasonable.

So yes, it's quite reasonable that the RH could be 16% at the register
and 45% in the middle of the room. Or IOW, 16% RH at 105F and 45% RH
at 72F are the same *absolute* humidity.

Edward

Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air coming out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit so that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:28:33 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:


Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html=20

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just=
finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70=
% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air comi=
ng out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think=
my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's =
problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit s=
o that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

That' a very good idea. I had a room AC when I lived in a very small
room and the AC was right next to my bed, and the fan ran all night even
if the air had cooled off and the compressor wasn't running. I hated
the noise.

I took off the cover, and just had to rearrange three slip-on
connectors. I didnt' have to cut or solder anything, and when the
compressor went off, the fan did too. Furnaces and humidifiers are
more spread out so it probably won't be that easy, but it can certainly
be done.

Actually you only need one wire with two ends.

There is probably a neutral wire from the humidifier to a common neutral
somewhere . You can leave that alone. All you need is a hot
wire that runs from the hot wire where the blower gets its power and
goes straight to the humidifier, where the hot wire from the furnace
control unit already connects to the humidifier. So the power
doesn't have to go through the furnace control unit.

You ought to put a switch on the wire, for when your wife is fully
recovered, or for when you trade houses with someone from New Zealand.

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 23:46:36 -0500, micky
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:28:33 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:


Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html=20

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just=
finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70=
% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air comi=
ng out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think=
my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's =
problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit s=
o that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

That' a very good idea. I had a room AC when I lived in a very small
room and the AC was right next to my bed, and the fan ran all night even
if the air had cooled off and the compressor wasn't running. I hated
the noise.

I took off the cover, and just had to rearrange three slip-on
connectors. I didnt' have to cut or solder anything, and when the
compressor went off, the fan did too. Furnaces and humidifiers are
more spread out so it probably won't be that easy, but it can certainly
be done.

Actually you only need one wire with two ends.

There is probably a neutral wire from the humidifier to a common neutral
somewhere . You can leave that alone. All you need is a hot
wire that runs from the hot wire where the blower gets its power and
goes straight to the humidifier, where the hot wire from the furnace
control unit already connects to the humidifier. So the power
doesn't have to go through the furnace control unit.

You ought to put a switch on the wire, for when your wife is fully
recovered, or for when you trade houses with someone from New Zealand.

You also might (eventually?) want a humidistat to control this wire
too**. I didn't read all of the thead, but I'm guessing you want
higher than you have now, but lower than 100% RH. If you put the
blower on ON, so it runs 24 hours a day, you might well get more
humidity than even you want.

**You could probably wire it to inlude the current humidistat, but I
never read whether that was part of the problem or not. AFAIK yoiu
might need a second one set higher.

On Monday, November 24, 2014 11:54:26 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 23:46:36 -0500, micky
wrote:

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:28:33 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:


Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html=20

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just=
finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70=
% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air comi=
ng out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think=
my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's =
problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit s=
o that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

That' a very good idea. I had a room AC when I lived in a very small
room and the AC was right next to my bed, and the fan ran all night even
if the air had cooled off and the compressor wasn't running. I hated
the noise.

I took off the cover, and just had to rearrange three slip-on
connectors. I didnt' have to cut or solder anything, and when the
compressor went off, the fan did too. Furnaces and humidifiers are
more spread out so it probably won't be that easy, but it can certainly
be done.

Actually you only need one wire with two ends.

There is probably a neutral wire from the humidifier to a common neutral
somewhere . You can leave that alone. All you need is a hot
wire that runs from the hot wire where the blower gets its power and
goes straight to the humidifier, where the hot wire from the furnace
control unit already connects to the humidifier. So the power
doesn't have to go through the furnace control unit.

You ought to put a switch on the wire, for when your wife is fully
recovered, or for when you trade houses with someone from New Zealand.

You also might (eventually?) want a humidistat to control this wire
too**. I didn't read all of the thead, but I'm guessing you want
higher than you have now, but lower than 100% RH. If you put the
blower on ON, so it runs 24 hours a day, you might well get more
humidity than even you want.

**You could probably wire it to inlude the current humidistat, but I
never read whether that was part of the problem or not. AFAIK yoiu
might need a second one set higher.

I think Tony mentioned earlier that the humidifiers should come with a transformer which allows the blower power be hooked up with it, maybe I could ask the contractor and see if they have that?

On Monday, November 24, 2014 11:46:43 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:28:33 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:


Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html=20

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just=
finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70=
% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air comi=
ng out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think=
my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's =
problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit s=
o that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

That' a very good idea. I had a room AC when I lived in a very small
room and the AC was right next to my bed, and the fan ran all night even
if the air had cooled off and the compressor wasn't running. I hated
the noise.

I took off the cover, and just had to rearrange three slip-on
connectors. I didnt' have to cut or solder anything, and when the
compressor went off, the fan did too. Furnaces and humidifiers are
more spread out so it probably won't be that easy, but it can certainly
be done.

Actually you only need one wire with two ends.

There is probably a neutral wire from the humidifier to a common neutral
somewhere . You can leave that alone. All you need is a hot
wire that runs from the hot wire where the blower gets its power and
goes straight to the humidifier, where the hot wire from the furnace
control unit already connects to the humidifier. So the power
doesn't have to go through the furnace control unit.


Are you aware that he said he had a variable speed blower, which
today is likely ECM?


You ought to put a switch on the wire, for when your wife is fully
recovered, or for when you trade houses with someone from New Zealand.

On Tuesday, November 25, 2014 7:58:57 AM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, November 24, 2014 11:46:43 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:28:33 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:


Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html=20

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just=
finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70=
% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air comi=
ng out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think=
my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's =
problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit s=
o that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

That' a very good idea. I had a room AC when I lived in a very small
room and the AC was right next to my bed, and the fan ran all night even
if the air had cooled off and the compressor wasn't running. I hated
the noise.

I took off the cover, and just had to rearrange three slip-on
connectors. I didnt' have to cut or solder anything, and when the
compressor went off, the fan did too. Furnaces and humidifiers are
more spread out so it probably won't be that easy, but it can certainly
be done.

Actually you only need one wire with two ends.

There is probably a neutral wire from the humidifier to a common neutral
somewhere . You can leave that alone. All you need is a hot
wire that runs from the hot wire where the blower gets its power and
goes straight to the humidifier, where the hot wire from the furnace
control unit already connects to the humidifier. So the power
doesn't have to go through the furnace control unit.


Are you aware that he said he had a variable speed blower, which
today is likely ECM?

right.

and even with an old fashion multi speed blower there are complications. If you connect the humdifier directly to the blower motor, the humidifer will be fed with different voltages when the blower operates at different speeds.

The best way to deal with this is to add another relay to power the humidifer. A not so bad way to deal with it is to connect the humidifier to the HIGH speed tap. Then the humidifier will see full line voltage when the blower is on high and it will see LOWER line voltage when the blower is on low.. This is not too bad usually. The worst thing you can do is connect the humidifer to a low speed tap. Then the voltage to the humdifier may get above 120 when the blower is on high speed, which can be very bad for the humidifer.

Bottom line, use a relay or be sure to connect to a the high speed tap and use a meter to check the voltage at the humidifer over all modes of operation.
Nothing is ever easy. :-)

Mark

On Monday, November 24, 2014 10:28:36 PM UTC-5, Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Monday, November 24, 2014 6:35:53 PM UTC-5, Edward Reid wrote:
On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 15:53:27 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:

I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning.
And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the
second floor registers where the hot air comes out.

Just FYI ... the control device is a humidistat. The sensor (or gauge)
is a hygrometer.

You'd be surprised how much difference temperature makes in how much
water air can hold. I found a calculator at

http://andrew.rsmas.miami.edu/bmcnoldy/Humidity.html

and plugged in some of the numbers you'd quoted. It doesn't convert
directly from RH at one temperature to RH at another temperature, so
you have to take it in two steps.

If the temperature is 72F and the relative humidity is 45%, then the
dewpoint is about 50F.

If the dewpoint is 50F and the relative humidity is 16%, then the
temperature is 105F.

And 105F coming out of a register from a gas furnace is reasonable.

So yes, it's quite reasonable that the RH could be 16% at the register
and 45% in the middle of the room. Or IOW, 16% RH at 105F and 45% RH
at 72F are the same *absolute* humidity.

Edward

Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air coming out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit so that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

If the humidity is already at 70 to 75% and you're intending to drive it
higher, you're almost certainly headed for trouble in NY. No building
science folks I've ever seen recommend humidity anywhere near that high.
About 50% is tops for a house in winter. And if it gets down to 10F or 20F
then more like 30% is tops. At 70%+ expect lots of condensation and likely
damage. The most I would do is keep maybe a bedroom higher, with a separate
humidifier.

On Tuesday, November 25, 2014 7:56:01 AM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, November 24, 2014 10:28:36 PM UTC-5, Hongyi Kang wrote:
On Monday, November 24, 2014 6:35:53 PM UTC-5, Edward Reid wrote:
On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 15:53:27 -0800 (PST), Hongyi Kang
wrote:

I set the manual humidistat to 45% since the very beginning.
And I have another small humidistat clipped right on one of the
second floor registers where the hot air comes out.

Just FYI ... the control device is a humidistat. The sensor (or gauge)
is a hygrometer.

You'd be surprised how much difference temperature makes in how much
water air can hold. I found a calculator at

http://andrew.rsmas.miami.edu/bmcnoldy/Humidity.html

and plugged in some of the numbers you'd quoted. It doesn't convert
directly from RH at one temperature to RH at another temperature, so
you have to take it in two steps.

If the temperature is 72F and the relative humidity is 45%, then the
dewpoint is about 50F.

If the dewpoint is 50F and the relative humidity is 16%, then the
temperature is 105F.

And 105F coming out of a register from a gas furnace is reasonable.

So yes, it's quite reasonable that the RH could be 16% at the register
and 45% in the middle of the room. Or IOW, 16% RH at 105F and 45% RH
at 72F are the same *absolute* humidity.

Edward

Thanks Edward, one of the websites Nate posted earlier:
http://home.fuse.net/clymer/water/rh.html

actually had the conversion between different temperature's RH. And I just finished the salt calibration of my hygrometer, it's actually measuring 70% instead of 75%, so I guess it is 5% off. The temperature of the air coming out of the hot register was between 95 and 102. Based on these, I think my humidifier is probably working fine, just not enough yet for my wife's problem. I'll ask the service tech and see if they could rewire the unit so that it can run while the blower is on. Thanks!

If the humidity is already at 70 to 75% and you're intending to drive it
higher, you're almost certainly headed for trouble in NY. No building
science folks I've ever seen recommend humidity anywhere near that high.
About 50% is tops for a house in winter. And if it gets down to 10F or 20F
then more like 30% is tops. At 70%+ expect lots of condensation and likely
damage. The most I would do is keep maybe a bedroom higher, with a separate
humidifier.

Oh the 70% came from the salt and water calibration you mentioned before. I put the hygrometer with water saturated salt in a zip bag and it read 70% instead of 75%, my room never was that high lol.

If you are getting condensation on your windows, you have enough humidity. Whether or not it is comfortable is a separate matter. If the humidistat is set for maximum, that is all you can do if everything else has been checked out.

You might call the manufacturer and see if they would send out someone for free to look at your problem as a goodwill gesture. If you tell about an unsatsfactory service call and your wife and new baby, they might be more wiling to send someone out without a charge to preserve their reputation. It might not hurt to mention this series of posts on this forum and how it is hurting their reputation to not have solved the problem. A little pressure on themg.

On Monday, November 24, 2014 10:54:22 PM UTC-5, wrote:
If you are getting condensation on your windows, you have enough humidity.. Whether or not it is comfortable is a separate matter. If the humidistat is set for maximum, that is all you can do if everything else has been checked out.

You might call the manufacturer and see if they would send out someone for free to look at your problem as a goodwill gesture. If you tell about an unsatsfactory service call and your wife and new baby, they might be more wiling to send someone out without a charge to preserve their reputation. It might not hurt to mention this series of posts on this forum and how it is hurting their reputation to not have solved the problem. A little pressure on themg.

Thanks for the advice! Will certainly do.