House hunting. Any heating system tips?

[Sadrian]

Hi all!

I am presently looking into buying my first home.  Presently, I live in an appartment with humidifiers in every room forced air heat.  What type of heating system do you advise to help keep humidity levels healthy?  Have you ever tried the humidifier that hooks into your heating system? 

Any advice?  Let me know!

Thanks!
S

[BonusMom]

Shared this post with Superman and he suggested radiant floor heating for us with SjS and dryness.  Congrats and good luck on your search!

[Joe S.]

Zoned Radiant heating is best for those of us with AI diseases.

[Dolly Dimples]

  Joe , don't make the same mistake that I did. we had solid fuel heating which was great, but really messy to clean and relight each day, so we decided to install Gas central heating and a gas fire.
I HATE it,  (and can't afford to change over again)  I on't use the fire as it affects my eyes too much,even with the humidifier going, and I cover all the radiators with a large bath towel  to stop the heat rising up..   I have a cooker with a fan oven , so now cooking  has practically ceased .....I could go on!!
   Going in the bath and going to bed are now my favourite places to be!   Cheers Dolly

[Billydude]

Just have me stand in the middle of the room as I'm always hot.  Even here in winter I'm in a sweat.
Steve

[ktfabian]

Sadrian-

I don't know a lot about heating systems, but I do know I wish we lived in a house where we could have a humidifier attached to the furnace, rather than having to run a humidifier in each room I'm going to spend time in.  We have gas heated, hot water base board heat, but the water  part doesn't mean any humidity, it's all trapped in the pipes that run through the base boards.  We were just a Lowe's looking at humidifiers today, trying to decide if it's time to step up to something bigger.

Congratulations on your home search.  As much as I complain about our mess at times - our home is over 100 years old and tho we've been living here for 18 years, still needs a lot of cosmetic attention ( and " a lot" is an understatement!)- I can't imagine moving back into an apartment after having lived in our own home for so long.

Good luck on the search.  I'm sure you'll get some great advice on what works well.  Are you in a region of the country where heat will be a major factor?  I live in NE PA and our heat is on pretty much from late Sept. til early May, so getting the humidity right is becoming a big issue for us as my dryness progresses.

Again, best of luck,
Tracy

[Sadrian]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for your input!  I live in Philadelphia area, so heat is important.  Most of the houses in the town we are looking are forced air or radiator.  I am wondering if a humidifier attached to the heating system would work well with the forced air? 

I haven't seen any radiating floor heat on the market. Would love to though!

I am so new to this, so I have no idea.  Dolly, are you refering to gas heat rather than oil?

Thanks again everyone!

S

[wednesday mc haggis]

hi there

i have gas central heating and in winter when its one all day mostly , my dry as a proverbial stick, spring and autum are a relief.

I had coal central heating .open fire with boiler feeding radiators, over each rooms radiators i had humidiers which were just clip on water vessels that helped, now in an open fire the air in the room changes every 4 minutes pollutants and allergens etc are more likely to be changed to, for asthma sufferers its truly helps, when we moved house my 3 year old at the time developed asthma within weeks of gas central heating , and i was parched , i trulu miss my coal, it was a messy bugger to clean and empty but it was way more comfortable on me than gas , god how i miss it

billydude   lololololol

T x

[Epson]

Mc Haggis:

Did your kids have to work in the coal mines to fuel your boiler, sounds like something from Dickens.

Sadrain:

We have a heat pump and resistance heat as a backup during long periods of temps below 20 degrees.  We have never needed humidifiers in our house and we live in an area that does see some sub zero days.  Much cheaper than gas and cleaner then coal

[wednesday mc haggis]

epsonj  lmao

it was in a small village, the house had either coal or electic heating as there was no gas supply , as it was government rented, we couldnt do much about that, but i still miss the effect of a real fire, something homely about it

[Chico]

We moved to a house with a built in central humidifier. Used a few times but then when I started getting severe allergy symptoms read up on "sick house" syndrome. Seems these central systems are really bad. Can cause molds etc. to grow in air vents then blow into house.

So cleaned and disabled the unit, use room units and still worry about having to have our air vents cleaned out professionally. This is not cheap and certainly won't add a thing but clean air and peace of mind.

But that's worth a lot.

Chico