It really depends on your house and how well sealed it is. We installed a aprilaire 720m and so far has kept our house at 40-45% consistently. But we have a new build, well sealed home. If you have an older leaky house, it may not perform as well. There’s the 800 steam version, but that will use a considerable amount of electricity.
600 is a bypass air humidifier. 720 is fan powered. 800 is steam.
720 is 60% more water efficent over 600 model, has an easy to change hydrocore, and is better performing. While having no performance drop on 2 stage and variable speed furnaces.
I'd go 720
Ive never heard of a single stage A/C that can't be paired to a two stage or modulating furnace before. Blower speed for the furnace heating will be variable, however for A/C cooling it will be a single constant airflow speed.
To be honest with your current configuration the 600 will do just fine. However if you are considering a two stage model, which I will highly recommend, it should be paired to a 720 series.
What a silly contractor. Very silly. Lennox doesnt make anything that locks you into a single stage furnace.
You dont go two stage or modulating to save gas. You do it to reduce noise, get better temperature distribution, more even heat across the home, with a gentler temperature curve. Plus it significantly reduces start/stop wear and tear, so its as reliable or more reliable compared to single stage.
My company may install a couple hundred furnaces a year. 90% of those furnaces are two stage models. 7% modulating, and maybe 3% single stage. A two stage model really is not much more than a single stage, and boasts significantly better comfort features. I've never had a customer in my entire career regret upgrading.
If you don't have an existing humidifier, you want an Aprilaire 720A series, its fan powered and requires no bypass duct. It's got better humidification properties than a bypass and is fully compatible with psc, constant torque, and constant cfm motors across single stage, two stage, and modulating furnaces. Aka it will work with ANY furnace/air handler, regardless of make and model.
plus, it's 60% more water efficient over the 600 series.
The 720 is a brand new humidifier with unproven failure points. Same with the 620. Plus the water panel assembly is going to be a more expensive change. And my understanding is the 720 is louder than the old 700.
I would stand by the 600. Aprilaie made the 620 and 720 save water but are you going to clean out the little orifice every time it plugs? The only way you know it's plugged is a loss of humidity. Then you have to go in with their little needle to hopefully clean it out?!?
The OP lives outside Chicago where the mineral content in the water is definitely going to cause that to happen.
Get a 600A if you don't use the Ecobee thermostat, a 600M if you do.
Yes. The difference between the M and A is the humidistat so you're getting started to the cheaper option because you're going to throw out the manual humidistat. The Ecobee is going to be your humidifier control.
The humidifier will run without heat at times (I assume the Ecobee can do that).
There is a slight drop in output for the model 600 (all evaporative humidifiers) when there isn't hot air so it's recommended to plumb to hot water.
Steam is absolutely overkill in your situation. It's completely unnecessary and will be a huge money pit. If the sq footage you listed is total space, and not just finished space, you would get by with the aprilaire 620. You could upgrade to the 720 and be solid, but it's probably not needed in your situation. Yes you can use it with an air handler. Don't do steam, you will regret it. Steam is excellent in the rare circumstance that it's justified.
EDIT: I missed it was a variable speed, so a bypass won't work very well. As much as it sucks, cutting into the side of the new coil to install a 700 or 720 is probably the best option other than steam.
~~Sounds like a good plan. Use rigid duct, an elbow, and a take-off for more bypass airflow (don't use flex duct).~~ Pipe to hot water. Get the one with the digital control and wire it for blower activation. I also strongly recommend you install the outdoor temp sensor so it can automatically adjust humidity with outside temp to avoid over humidification.
700 and 720 both pull their air from the plenum and put it back in the duct. The vents on the cover of the 700 are for the motor cooling, and the motor is mostly walled off with a plate from the humidifier airflow. There's a little air leakage through the vents, but most of the airflow is going in and out of the duct only.
That is a good question, the answer is yes. 720 is 1.75 GPH vs. 700 at 3 GPH. So you will get more heat gain from the hot water with a 700. The 720 fan pushes a little more CFM than 700 though, which helps it get a couple more GPD.
Another hack you can do with a 700 (but not a 720) is replace the yellow flow orifice with the blue one to double the water flow rate to 6 GPH. That gets you more hot water if the yellow orifice wasn't enough (but that's getting to be a lot of hot water usage if it runs all day). You can also increase the thermostat on your water heater (max of 140ºF) and insulate the water line to the humidifier if it's more than a few feet from the water heater to maximize the heat.
FYI the hot water thing doesn't work with tankless heaters because the flow rate is too low. Hopefully you have a standard tank water heater.
You didn't specify your square footage. If I assume an average-size modern house, I'd figure it needs about 6 gallons per day of actual output. You will not be able to maintain 45% all winter without window condensation problems; 35% is a more typical setting.
If this is a variable-speed heat pump (e.g. Carrier Infinity), you will need either a fan-powered humidifier mounted to the supply duct above the A/C coil or a steam humidifier. AprilAire models for those would be 700, 720, or 800. FYI, do not install a fan-powered humidifier on the return duct.
A bypass humidifier is a cheaper option, but only if you have a single-stage heat pump (always runs at one high speed on or off).
I would recommend installing the digital humidistat that comes with the AprilAire models according to the wiring diagram in the manual. Your thermostat probably doesn't have the capability to control more than one accessory. Also, install the outdoor temperature sensor so the humidifier can adjust automatically to prevent window condensation. The AprilAire automatic control does a good job and is "set it and forget it" all winter.
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