NA — House Humidifier / WiFi Thermostat

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JGoodish

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JGoodish
Since I’m “lucky” enough to live where it snows 6 months a year, and I’m always cold even when it’s not cold in my house, I’ve thought about installing a humidifier on my furnace to help bring the indoor humidity up a bit during the winter (likely an Aprilaire 700 powered model).

Aprilaire appears to make two different versions of their powered humidifier: a manual, and an automatic model. The manual model relies on you to adjust for outdoor temperature, and the automatic version has a temperature probe which must run to the exterior of the building.

Since I’ve also wanted a connected WiFi (versus a “smart” thermostat), I thought that I could centralize humidifier control in a new thermostat. Indeed, it appears that I can, but obtaining a connected thermostat which isn’t a “smart” one (i.e. Nest or ecobee) *and* provides accessory control is proving difficult. Honeywell has some WiFi thermostats which will pull weather data and also report indoor humidity, but the accessory control is missing from the direct-to-consumer models (but appears to exist in similar models sold through contractors). Same story with Emerson and one or two other manufacturers I’ve researched.

As a result, I may be forced to consider a Nest or ecobee. I don’t want a thermostat that does things on its own (or reports to Google), so the Nest doesn’t seem to be the best choice even though I think that it does have the best user interface. I don’t want to use the ecobee sensors, which are optional, but it appears that the new ecobee has Alexa spyware built in and, according to at least one review that I read, makes itself ugly with a glowing red light when you disable Alexa.

I’m not sure where to go from here. The other option, or course, is that I could use the humidifier’s automatic option and just manage it separately from the thermostat, but I’m unsure of how much benefit the humidifier will provide to living comfort in the first place.

What say the experience of others on these topics?
 
I don't have much experience at all. Years ago I owned a home with a forced-air oil furnace (in a very, very cold climate) and it had a non-working humidifier built into it. I was going to repair the humidifier portion, but the HVAC guy I consulted for advice strongly recommended I not use it, stating that the humidified air being forced through the ducts will cause more problems than it would solve..... corrosion, mold, etc. His recommendation was to just use a humidifier in our living spaces.

Who knows... that's about all I've got.
 
Get the auto. Our house came with manual and I have to a keep adjusting based on outdoor temp. If I don’t, it’s either too humid and we get condensation on the windows and other cold areas, or it’s too dry. I get lazy and set it for too dry so we don’t start worrying about mold and water damage.

Does it help? Heck yes. Sleeping and waking up are more comfortable (no dry mouth, nose), less itchy skin, low static. Do it.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Get the auto. Our house came with manual and I have to a keep adjusting based on outdoor temp. If I don’t, it’s either too humid and we get condensation on the windows and other cold areas, or it’s too dry. I get lazy and set it for too dry so we don’t start worrying about mold and water damage.

Does it help? Heck yes. Sleeping and waking up are more comfortable (no dry mouth, nose), less itchy skin, low static. Do it.
Click to expand...

Can you tell me please in more detail what kind of system you installed? Or it's not a home system?
 
MuseChaser said:
I don't have much experience at all. Years ago I owned a home with a forced-air oil furnace (in a very, very cold climate) and it had a non-working humidifier built into it. I was going to repair the humidifier portion, but the HVAC guy I consulted for advice strongly recommended I not use it, stating that the humidified air being forced through the ducts will cause more problems than it would solve..... corrosion, mold, etc. His recommendation was to just use a humidifier in our living spaces.

Who knows... that's about all I've got.
Click to expand...

Have you already chosen a humidifier? Now this is really an actual topic for me. I read reviews, but I would be interested in how a particular model works in practice. When you made your purchase, did you not consider the Venta LW25 Airwasher 2-in-1 Humidifier and Air Purifier home model? I know that it can be bought on Amazon. I found this humidifier in this review and really became interested in it.
 
The Ecobee 3 Lite does not have the built-in Alexa. We've had a 3 (not the Lite, which came later, but also without voice control) for a couple of years now. I like it, other than the fact that it has no provision for a local outdoor temperature probe. It relies on Internet weather reports from God only knows where to determine the outside temp. Like you, I would very much like to find a wifi connected control system that is not dependent upon a "cloud" service, but I haven't found one.

Ours does control the humidifier (a General 1040) as well as the furnace and heat pump. Does a pretty good job. The remote sensors are actually nice to have. You have a couple of options when using them, like averaging the temps, trying to maintain the set temp in occupied areas, or just trying to hit the set temperature in specific areas.
 
I actually ordered one of the Aprilaire systems a couple years ago, but ended up not installing it when I actually did a deep-dive on how my HVAC system was set up (short story: the installer 20 years ago did it completely wrong). We ended up replacing the whole HVAC mechanicals this summer to get dual zone functionality. I said something to our HVAC guy about the humidifier b/c we get dry air issues in the winter (static, itchy skin, bloody noses, etc.) and he said the best thing FOR US was to get the dual-stage burner for the furnace so it's not going full blast all winter long (in Georgia, we only need full capacity of the furnace maybe a week or two per winter). Like someone else mentioned, he said the inline humidifiers introduce issues in the ducts with mold, corrosion, etc.

With that said..... Before ditching the idea, I had decided on the automatic model of Aprilaire b/c we have large variances in humidity in the winter and I didn't want mess with adjusting the manual model. We are also running the Ecobee 3 Lite thermostats. So far, so good. I'll probably look for some Black Friday deals on the remote sensors to add to bedrooms and living areas, but overall we're happy with them.
 
No necessity to integrate the humidifier with the thermostat temperature control that I can see.
Having an outside temp probe is convenient.

Flow through with a drain on the bottom and simple rectangular mesh is much, much better than the dead end reservoir type with the wheel that goes round and round. I've had both. Would not consider the wheel style unless I lived somewhere with a huge problem with water availability. You do need a drain nearby or a pump to send the drain water off somewhere - but if you have AC or a high efficiency furnace there should already be something to tap into.
Powered is one more thing to go wrong, but easier to install. I have a bypass type: https://www.carrier.com/residential/en/us/products/indoor-air-quality/humidifiers/humccsbp/
It's tied in to the thermostat / outside temperature somehow - I got the whole furnace / AC / humidifier/etc. installed together.
 
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