801 Modulating Steam Humidifier

It’s definitely possible. I’d recommend a aprilare 800. It’d have to be mounted on the supply side of the furnace with the hydrometer on the return.

We are planning to get an Aprilaire whole house steam humidifier. There’s an option to get a small fan box that gets installed inside the wall and it looks like a white air vent. The fan runs with the steam humidifier to distribute when you can’t have a humidifier in line with HVAC. We have a boiler so can’t add that to it and use about 5-10 gallons of reverse osmosis water a day with ultrasonic humidifiers. The steam system can humidify 35 gallons a day if connected to a 240V connection and the salt from our water softener doesn’t need removed by RO.

If you're on a budget, aprilaire's AA720A model humidifier offers the best price/performance. Only down side is you need lots of room to install it on the supply plenum as it's a big boi. Water panel replacement is like $38 and done once a year. Alternatively, steam humidification will absolutely blow anything out of the water. It's just much, much better and completely water efficent. It's like $800 (plus tax/shipping) my cost for an AA800 series steam humidifer. Maintenance consists of a replacement canister once a year, like $100. However, it's pretty much maintenance-free otherwise. I'm a fan of ecobee's offerings for thermostats. However, you'd need to pull a new thermostat wire to accommodate the new humidifer. Something like an 18/10. Alternatively, both honeywell and Trane/AmStd make thermostats that have equipment interface modules. The thermostat uses 3 wires to "talk" to the module and the module controls everything from that. This eliminates the need to pull a new thermostat wire, however will have added cost to perform the job.

I have a century house in NEOhio, and the only fix has been an Aprilaire steam humidifier. It does work and maintains humidity level, BUT it will use some power! The canister I change once a year for about $85 bucks.

Hell yeah! Really appreciate all the insight! We’re likely going with the aa800. If there are any major contenders to performance and reliability, definitely interested. Doesn’t sound like anything being suggested is really out of the budget.

I've got it and love it. I keep the humidity down low though and if I need a little extra for the bedrooms at night I can run something on the nightstand. Helps reduce those dry air bloody noses and teeth sensitivity. I forget which version of the Aprilaire automatic that we have, but I keep the dial set at four and I've never had an issue with mold. I just want to take the edge off the dryness, not turn the house into a sauna.

If you have central heating and air I HIGHLY recommend looking into a central humidifier especially if you are in a very dry area. Set and forget with auto water feeding and humidity setting with minimal (like 1x a year) maintenance. They are usually not super expensive to install either. I like the Aprilaire units.