Bypass vs Fan Powered Humidifier: Which One Should You Get?
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
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Recommended Bypass Humidifier: amzn.to/2JJ2kJj
We compare bypass humidifiers vs fan powered humidifiers. Bypass humidifiers use ductwork from your HVAC system to pass air across a humidification filter that adds moisture to your air when the furnace is on.
Fan powered humidifiers use a fan that pushes air across the humidifier filter to add moisture to your home air.
Fan powered humidifiers can add more moisture to your air quicker because they can work independently of your HVAC system airflow. Typically fan powered humidifiers are easier to install than bypass humidifiers.
Fan powered humidifiers typically require a 120V outlet to work but for the most part offer better performance than bypass humidifiers.
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Fan humidifiers are not designed to run without furnace on heat or A/C mode because fan is not powerful enough to push air trough whole ducting. The fan humidifiers have control units connected to blower motor control so they turn on the same time and turn off together.
My 2 cents:
1) In the bypass humidifier - the water vapors are formed right at the water panel - this is better just because the vapors are distributed uniformly while evaporation occurs as the water is dispersed across the panel as opposed to the fan based one, where the water drips are transferred in the supply line, then evaporated. one point for bypass
2)They both should be installed at the supply, it relies on hot air to evaporate. Disadvantage here for the bypass is that the water goes through the furnace blower first, before getting in the house. As for the fan based humidifier the humidity skips the furnace - goes directly in the house. Less humidity loss and a more efficient way to introduce humidity in the system. Not sure how much is lost/how much it affects the filter and the blower. I would say 1 point for the fan based here
3)You mentioned the fan based being able to run without heat/fan from furnace? I would never do that - the water evaporated this way is minimal if any - I believe it would be a major waste of energy/water.
I think these missing arguments are critical for this video
Great video! Thank you for taking the time to put it together.
One additional cost to consider of the bypass styling, the power to move air is supplied from the blower fan of the furnace. There is a parasitic loss of efficiency of the system when linking the output to the input of furnace.
Just figured it is worth noting the efficiency loss of the bypass will likely nullify the cost increase of running the second fan.
Another big advantage of the fan powered humidifiers installed in a basement is that the air in the basement is usually the air with the highest state of humidity in a home, so it will help circulate that into the rest of the home rather than the basement being a "catch basin" for higher humidity air.
Doesn't the powered humidifier pull hot air from the duct, pass it through the wet pad, and return it to the same duct? How would it circulate basement air?
You shouldn't run your humidifier with out the blower motor running to circulate the moisture. Your going to rust out your duct work and cause mold growth...
When you wire in a fan-powered humidifier to run without heat being called for by the thermostat, you wire them into the board. When the humidistat calls for humidity, if the thermostat is not calling for heat, it will turn on the main blower fan without turning on the rest of the furnace so as to circulate the moisture.
I have an AprilAire 700 manual, so just the turn knob to a percent, but mine is wired wrong or is incapable of running without the heat running. It only turns on with the heat so I never get up past 17%. Anyone assist me with a fix? Or do I need to buy an automatic panel to replace the manual one. I have hot water running through the system on the intake since there was no room on the external side.
@@do_hickey without heat there's barely any moisture. Most of the moisture is produced when evaporating occurs - no heat, no evaporation
thank you for your clear and concise depiction of the differences between the two styles. this is exactly what i was looking for. now i know i definitely need a fan powered humidifier.
u rock
Airflow on your bypass diagram is reverse. Air flows from supply side into humidifier then return side.
Thank you. Great explanation. I have a 2 mode heating system. That blows heat when the temperature drops and just blows air to recirculate intermittently. Will a by-pass work well with this type of system?
Thanks for no crappy muzak, liked and subscribed, very informative.
thanks for the great video. Its a nice overview for people like me to decide which one to get. thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent video!
Thank you! Cheers!
Thanks great video
Thanks a bunch😊😊
James, how can I fabricate a fan for Aprilair 500?
I got a bypass because there was no room on the outflow side to put a fan-powered humidifier. Been working fine now for 7 years.
👍 thank you
What about the cost to own? How much power per year does the fan power consume and then add to your energy cost?
😬 can I install an exhaust fan on the bypass unit and drill holes to pull air :D just a thought
I just installed a bypass one because the fan powered humidifiers required a larger footprint on the duct and I didn't have quite enough room.
Question:
Am I correct that the Fan Powered Unit delivers moist air through to all the supply vents, while the Bypass delivers to only one supply vent?
What about a steam humidifier like the aprilaire 800
Preformance?
How about fan power type reliability/maintenance issue?
Typically the most common failure I've seen on humidifiers is that the solenoid valve that controls the water fails. This is common to both fan powered and bypass humidifiers. The solenoid valves have a very small orifice and they get clogged with minerals in the water and fail or the solenoid itself fails. It would be great if someone engineered a better humidifier valve as when a humidifier isn't working 90% of the time that seems to be the issue.
As far as reliability and maintenance in my experience both the bypass and fan powered humidifiers are equally reliable. I guess you could make the claim that a bypass humidifier has fewer parts, but since typically they both fail in the same way at the water solenoid valve I rate them as equally reliable. The fans on the fan powered humidifier are nothing special, just a fan that runs when it receives a signal. I would consider it no more or less reliable than a typical fan, most of which seem to run for decades or more without issue.
@@OneHourSmartHome Thank you. how about noise level when fan powered runs?
Would you recommend the fan powered humidifier if you don’t have room to install it on the supply and now you have to install it on the return. Even with hot water, my concern would be that the fan powered units throw out a lot of moisture (compared by bypass units), so it's not great to install on the return air side because you can get moisture collecting on the furnace filter, motor, circuits, and burner as it makes its way to the supply side. Thoughts?
how good are these with heat pumps?
With a heat pump you should use a fan powered humidifier for the best results we have a post on it here: www.onehoursmarthome.com/blog/best-humidifier-for-nest. Or we recommend this fan powered humidifier model: amzn.to/38KOobZ
Will Nest work for both these types of humidifiers?
Yes, either type will work for nest.
@@OneHourSmartHome awesome thanks! So it has a way of turning the blower on with the humidifier even if heat isn’t being called for? Watched your other vid and didn’t see an answer to that but might have missed it.
Double cost for fan power humidifier.
You didn't address water waste, outdoor temp sensors or which control Manual or automatic is employed. A lot more to consider .
It is performance....preformance?
Good catch. I did it twice LOL!
@@OneHourSmartHome And it's misspelled on both sides on the white board as well :)
Lol I was like LOL when I saw this
@@briancoonrod5062 really? who freaking cares dude?
I personally would not put a nest thermostat on even my worst enemy's home.
Wouldn’t use a fan powers humidifier if the ahu or furnace is located in the garage,attic or crawlspace as they use air from outside of the conditioned space in these examples.
i just looked at this today and the aprilair 700 model does not pull air from outside the unit it pulls from inside the furnace and put's humidified air back in
On the bypass you show air going into the unit when in fact it comes out because the blower motor is running. It than goes into the cold air return, past the heat exchanger and into the cold air return.
Exactly, the diagram is wrong and so I’m not sure that he understands how it works.
The fan model makes your house cold when running