Remote mounting a by-pass humidifier
I have encountered a retrofit situation where, due to space considerations, it will be very difficult to mount a by-pass humidifier directly on the furnace plenum. I can do a short 6″ run (with one 90 deg turn) off the plenum and remotely mount the humidifier. Has anyone tried this? How much of the humidifier’s efficiency will be lost? Thanks.
Eric
Replies
Mine is mounted that way. I don't see a problem with efficiency. All of you air goes through the plenum right now. So you divert some of it through the humidifier. You are just diverting some of the air. Does that make sense?
Edited 1/14/2008 11:22 pm ET by popawheelie
Yes, it does. Thanks!
By the way I've turned ours off. It doesn't seem to bother anyone and it's one less thing i have to keep up. It is pretty dry now but nobody has said anyhting.
I don't get you -- where are you mounting the humidifier?
In general, a bypass humidifier can be mounted on either the supply or return ductwork. It can be on a branch duct (vs the main plenum) if the face of it is wide enough, the main issue being the length of the flex duct to the other side.
Where a bypass won't work well for some reason you may prefer to use a power humidifier.
The furnace is located in a very small mechanical room and tucked into a corner. There are 12" round ducts coming from the 2 exposed faces of the plunum and heading up into the ceiling. The return air is inaccessible has similar space problems, so I was thinking of going through the wall behind the plunum, running a 6" duct from the plenum to the by-pass humidifier, and then taking the output from the by-pass unit and routing it to the one place on the return air trunk that is accessible. This was a pretty unique installation, but I think my plan here ought to work. If you don't agree, please tell me. Thanks.
Eric
You need some sort of box to mount the humidifier on -- about a 12x12 flat surface. I suppose that box could be fed by a smaller round duct. You need to keep the overall duct length short, basically subtracting your round duct length from the allowable length for the bypass tube.
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