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i would never advise anyone to get a steam humidifier who does not have to. buy an aprialaire 600 bypass with the 65 controller that can run your furnace fan until humidity reaches setpoint. too much discharge water is because the orifice isnt right. they sell orifices. also, dont use piercing valves. they sell 1/4 turn valves. use that. you can control water excess with the 1/4 turn valve and the orifice. steam humidifiers are absolutely ridiculous.
I would say in general it is fine everywhere but certain members of the babys caregiving team insisted the baby needed sopping wet air 😓. Our central humidifier caps at 45% in its settings (Aprilaire 600 maybe? via Lennox thermostat) and in practice seems to max out around 40-42 simply bc our upstairs furnace doesnt run as much as it would need to to fully humidify. We do get small amounts of condensation on our (new very high performance) windows so we are practically maxed out on humidity, but some felt the baby needed more…
I had an Aprilaire 600 installed and seems to help. The trick is you need the installer to wire the 24v transformer correctly to the tstat so it is only activated when the fan is running.
We charge about $1200 for an Aprilaire Model 600. Includes water line, low voltage wiring, 120 connected to transformer, bypass duct, humidistat controller, everything. I thought everyone does Aprilaire. Is your house, huge? Is there some reason you're asking for these 2 specific models? Edit: oh I see that first one is an Aprilaire. It's just a different type of humidifier. Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with them. But again, I'd question why you want that one instead of an Aprilaire Model 600 (by FAR the most common in my experience).
All you need is an Aprilaire Model 600. Easiest most common. Find someone to do it in the 900-1400 range. Depending on pricing in your area. Easy peasy. If you're in MN we will do it for you haha. Just my 2 cents. Been with my company 7.5 years and in sales just over 2 years.
Some clarification on his comment, I also wouldn't recommend a saddle valve (I call it a piercing valve) but the first quote is saying, I believe, "replace the saddle valve with a turn-ball valve". Regardless, it sounds like do not go with that first quote. WAY too high. The condensate pump, don't you already have condensate, for sure for an A/C cooling coil above the furnace, and maybe also for the furnace if it is high efficiency with PVC vent pipes. Shouldn't need a new condensate pump, but I'm not 100% sure you're setup. More just assuming. Otherwise yeah the 2nd quote might be just a bit high. Either use them or get one more quote. Again, I would just do an Aprilaire Model 600. Or a basic similar bypass humidifier. Should be 900-1400 I don't know if you're rural or city.
I feel your pain. We moved to Colorado a few years ago and finally found a solution that works. At first I had a whole home unit (AprilAire 600) hooked up to my furnace but since I have a tankless water heater so it will only run when the heat is on which is not long enough to increase the humidity to a decent level. So here is the unit I found on Amazon and for the last 3 days it has put 18 gallons of water into the air in my home and increased the humidity from low 20's to 40%. Not just one room either, my whole home. Let me know if you have any questions. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGR1N9T6?ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_fed\_asin\_title](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGR1N9T6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title) EDIT: Oh yeah, it is an evaporative unit so no white dusk and it is very easy to clean.
We added a humidifier, we went with an April Aire bypass 600 model. The steam humidifiers need an expensive canister replaced yearly. It made a huge difference, for years we used portable humidifiers, the whole house addition was a nice upgrade. Get the automatic humidistat that measures outdoor temp and automatically adjusts.
We install the Aprilaire 600M and 800, so I think you're on the right track. FWIW, we haven't had noise complaints with the 800. The location matters, and it also depends on how noisy the heat pump is when it's running. Is the medical condition just cause sensitivity too humidity? Or is there a bigger indoor air quality component that'll require better ventilation and filtration? And depending on the age of the house, air leakage, and location (climate), I'd be concerned about going above 50% relative humidity in winter. It may or may not be an issue where you live.
I run one in my small, 800-ish sq-ft home. It's an Aprilaire 600 which is controlled by an ecobee thermostat that references outside temperature to set the indoor humidity. The thermostat has an additional frost control setting to adjust for window efficiency. It has done wonders for my eczema in the winter, and our plants are a little happier too. Installation was done by myself, for the cost of the humidifier, some random tools to tap into a hot water line, and new 18/6 thermostat wire to handle the addition of the unit. $500 there about I think. This is with a completely unfinished basement and short run for the wire, so install was probably more simple for me than most. Before the install, I did have the Home Energy Squad folks assess my house for wall and attic insulation, air tightness, water heater settings, all the boring stuff. If that service is available to you and you want to install a whole home humidifier, do the assessment first. In my case, I had been thinking about adding insulation to the rim joist and was advised not to as my house is pretty well sealed for it age (1928 build). Sealing and insulating the rim joist would impact my furnace and water heater functions due to the reduction in fresh air supply. That last bit was a tangent.... Bottomline.. Whole home humidifiers are nice IF your home is properly insulated and the humidifier is setup to manually or automatically reference the exterior temp.





