Anybody got a cheap hygrometer they would recommend? My wife's allergies have been crazy since we moved into our new home and I'm wondering if the humidity is too high. I'm trying to find a cheap/accurate hygrometer to measure the RH in the house.

 

Since it's new, your ducts may be extremely dirty. Who knows when they were last cleaned, if they changed filters regularly or dirty due to construction.

Maybe try this one: http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-TM00...6181983&sr=8-1

 

Thanks.

Well its not new, new..its new to us The home is about 30 years old but its been updated with new insulation on the exterior walls and new insulation in the attic. We recently put in a ridge vent because we had quite a bit of condensation on the windows. It seems to have helped quite a bit but I'm questioning whether it might not be enough. I had seen that unit on amazon but i thought i'd check to see if anyone on here actually had one and knew it worked good.

 

Do you have a humidifier on your furnace or in your home? It's pretty tough to get condensation on windows in the winter due to very low levels of moisture in the air.

 

No we don't.

we have an oil furnace and keep the thermostat on 65 when we are there and turn it down to 60 when we got to work.

 

Radio Shack has a few digital thermometers that also measure humidity. About $20 or so in the store. I can't find the one I have, or I'd give you the model #.

Generally speaking, though, I'd be shocked if the humidity is high in the house right now. How is someone allergic to high humidity, anyway? Or are you worried about mold and such? I have hideous springtime allergies, but humidity isn't a determinant.

 

What is she allergic to? Dust? Pet Dander? Did you have a mold check done when you had a home inspection (I'm assuming you think there's mold). There very well could be mold somewhere if there was extreme moisture in the house prior to you buying it/when you first moved in.

Do everything you can to clean up the house. Cleaning the ducts is a suggestion - especially if the previous owners had pets that shed. If you have carpets, shampoo them (not just vacuum) and you will see just how much crap comes out, including hairs and stuff that your regular vacuum didn't dig deep enough to get to the surface. Wash any drapery, etc, etc, etc.... See if a MAJOR clean-up helps.

 

Wally World and Target also have them and they are all over eBay.

 

I found one at walmart.com that was like 7 bucks. we'll see if it works worth a damn. Ordered it yesterday.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ReviewTitleBar

To be honest, I'm not sure what allergies she has. I just know she doesn't cough or get stopped up until we get home in the afternoon. We have a dog but its a mini schauzner and she's hypoallergenic. Also, we've had her for 3 years and its never been an issue before now.

We didn't have a serious home inspection. We did some serious renovating though: pulled up carpet in two rooms, painted all rooms, put down tile in 3 rooms, refinished hardwoods in one room and put down laminate in another. No drapery was kept from the previous owners. The only thing that hasn't been cleaned or attempted to be cleaned in the air ducts. I've never heard of doing such to be honest. I might take a look down them this afternoon to see if i can see anything but i know if i don't see anything that doesn't mean it isn't farther down in the duct I guess i'll just wait for the hygrometer first to see if that tells me anything.

 

Get the HVAC duct work cleaned out. It really does make a difference. I had it done once and the first thing I noticed is that dust stopped accumulating behind pictures and in wall corners. I used to see a ring of dust if I took a picture off the wall, no more.

 

She might have a chemical sensitivity. All that stuff will outgas like mad, so the first warm days we get (tomorrow's looking good) get the windows open.

 

Where in Southern VA are you located?

 

A coworker had a hygrometer she let us borrow until mine comes in. I put it in your bedroom last night. Got up this morning and just checked it. Says 59% RH in the room. Going to check other rooms and they try the other hygrometer when it comes in to see if it reads the same. From what I've read it should be between 30-50% so its a little high in that room.

 

We got the hygrometer we ordered online and its reading exactly the same, right at 60%. my wife went to the doctor yesterday and got "meds-o-plenty". The doctor told her if this doesn't work she needs to have an allergy test to figure it out. Its definitely something in or about the house causing it We had a really hot weekend last weekend and we had all the windows open but it didn't seem to help the situation.

 

FYI... ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) states RH shouldn't exceed 65% http://www.ashrae.org/docLib/20070809_TC0403FAQ12.pdf

It's very unlikely the symptoms your wife is seeing are a direct result of the humidity.

There's likely some sort of mold growing somewhere in the house that she's having reactions to.

 

60% humidity on a continuous basis is high enough to let mold survive/thrive in places you can't see, and may be slightly damper than the air you're measuring. Also, at 60%, dust mites can survive as well.

The humidity isn't the cause, per se, but it's probably not helping the two items above. Pollen is starting here in NoVA, my Toucan Sam nose is telling me so.

 

thanks for the info guys.

we decided are going to insulate underneath the house this weekend and also put down 6 mil plastic over the ground as well. I believe alot of moisture has got to be coming from below the house and i'm hoping this will help correct the humidity problemsl. I'll post back once we get everything installed.

 

we had a guy come and give us an estimate on insulating underneath the house and he said there was a significant amount of mold under there. So much that he felt confident it was the cause of my wife's problems. I've gotta get under there tonight and tomorrow and spray the whole thing with bleach water and hopefully we'll be getting our insulation and moisture barrier down this weekend

 

I don't like houses on crawlspaces for a number of reasons, and this is one.

Good luck! Ventilate the heck out of the house, because the chlorine smell will be overpowering. Don't spend too much time under there at once, either.

 

It's impossible to get condensation on the windows with low levels of humidity in the winter. Have to be above 35% RH for sure.

 

I've decided to put down just the moisture barrier for now(this weekend) and to continue spraying the bleach/water solution until i feel the mold is taken care of, then we'll add the insulation.
I got up under there last night and starting spraying and it was pure hell. I didn't have a good mask so i couldn't do much spraying before I had to get out then go back. I got a GOOD mask today so hopefully I can finish up tonight. The whole house smelled to high hell also, I've opened all the windows hoping it'll air out today.

We are going to get a HEPA air purifier rather than a dehumidier also because I think the moisture barrier should take care of the RH issue or at least I hope.

 

Just to give ya some info... A lot of people are misinformed about humidifiers and furnaces.

Most people think their furnace is what causes the dry air in their house... this isn't true.

Your furnace will not dry out your air be it gas, oil, or heat-pump. Heating the air does not dry it out. It's a really misunderstood fact of HVAC. Air that comes into your return duct at 45% humidity at 70 degrees will still be 45% humidity after it passes through your furnace blows our your vents and the air returns back to 70 degrees.

Now the combustion air used in oil & gas furnaces going out the chimney will have less humidity. But that's not being directed into your house.

Humidifiers are *only* needed in houses that have air leaks. If you have outside winter air infiltrating in it'll lower your humidity. A house with 2 to 4 people living in it (people expel moisture), doing laundry and running the dishwasher is easily enough to keep the humidity at 50%.

Explaining it a bit further. Dry winter air is like a sponge for moisture. Air that's at 10 degrees and 80% humidity sounds like it has a lot of humidity, but it's translates to 7% humidity at 72 degrees. So as air leaks into your house in the winter it absorbs the moisture since the air has a lot less moisture. This is the only time you need a humidifier...

Hopefully your vapor barrier works out, but if it doesn't...

In your case you have the opposite, when humidity is that high you could have vapor between your walls. This sets up an environment to grow mold between the walls. I'd put some ventilation in your crawl space for sure. If humidity is still very high in the middle of the winter I'd put a fresh air duct on the return side of your furnace. Use a motorized damper and get a t-stat that supports dehumidifying controls. The outside fresh air mixing in with your return air will lower the humidity a lot (like I explained in the paragraph above, but it's controlled air leakage). And the t-stat will control when to let fresh air in from the outside and keep the house balanced. In the summer your A/C should be able to keep up with the dehumidifying.

 

I'd purchase the dehumidifier as well if you can budget it... or borrow one until you don't need it anymore.

Your going to find setting up your entire house to be hepa filtered is crazy $$ and $$ in filter maintenance, Read the other thread in this section about air filters here https://acurazine.com/forums/home-garden-37/hvac-furnace-maintenance-713167/
Before you go buying the most $$ 3m furnace filter.

Also save yourself some $$ and do the HEPA filter this way. Scroll down to the section titled "ROOM AIR CLEANER TEST USING A 20" BOX FAN WITH 3M FILTRETE 1085 AIR FILTER". You may want to change to the next filter model up (filter with the sharp pleated edges in filter) if you make this setup. I'd change these filters every 3 months or so...
http://www.americanallergysupply.com/dylos.htm


Another thing to consider is see if you can retro fit a 4" (wide) HVAC filter into your furnace. 4" filters last longer, filter the air better and save you $$ as they don't restrict airflow nearly as bad.

I have bad allergies, and I had humidity problems in my house. Which is why I know so many things about it; I've been reading/researching it for over a year.

 

Thanks for the info Siggy

 

NP, if the DIY HEPA fan was too cheesy/crappy looking for you to have around your house.

Check this out...

http://www.laskoproducts.com/fans/model_3900.html


Probably want to shop around for prices... Amazon has them for $42

Just know you can use any 20"x20"x1" filter. So filters from homedepot/lowes too, the 3m high performance sharp pleated ones (which I don't recommend for furnace use) I would recommend for this use. Be a excellent near HEPA quality filter at .5 micron, and very cheap to replace the filters. Plus it'll move a ton of air ... way better than any of those little HEPA units you can buy. And way less $$ in filter changes; it's the filter changes that kill you on the small HEPA units.

Good luck!

 

Sprayed bleach/water under the house for 3 days then got the moisture barrier down last Saturday. We've been keeping the windows open during the day to help with the smell of bleach and we close them at night. The RH in the house has dropped dramatically. Its around 30 with the windows open and 40 to 45 with the windows closed My wife says she feels a tad better so hopefully we're on our way to fixing this problem.

We ended up buying a HEPA filter from walmart. It was like 90 bucks and does ~250 sq/ft.

 

No Dog is truly hypoallergenic. They all produce dander, some just don't shed.
Congrats on the RH solution and the mold find. It may be worth having her go to an allergist to determine what she is truly allergic to and that will help her to resolve the symptoms and you to resolve the cause.

 

^^ we agree and she has an appointment next week for allergy testing.

 

Figured I'd update this thread since alot has happened and all I can do is laugh at this point as its still not fixed.

My wife finally went to the allergist and turns out she is NOT allergic to mold. Actually, she wasn't allergic to ANY of the 60 things they tested her for. Dr. thinks she has non allergic rhinitis (ok, whatever).

Since lasting posting, we still did not see a great deal of change in the RH in the house after putting down a moisture barrier (6 mil). We went ahead and insulated the crawl space and STILL didn't see much of difference after that either. We then bought two of these http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...7487_200327487

My thought was, air just wasn't circulating effectively under the house as there was moisture on top of the moisture barrier and even small puddles of water(coin size). The house has two additions, one on the end and one on the back and the way its built, air cannot flow completely through from one end of the house to the other. This is true for both front/back and side to side. So i was thinking the fans would help circulate the air under there more effectively. Well, its been a week now since I installed the fans and the humidity has gone down SLIGHTLY but there's still way too much moisture under the house. Still moisture on top of the barrier/puddles.

I think the problem is run off. In the front of the house, water is running towards the foundation, seeping through the block and keeping the crawl space wet. I'm contemplating a french drain in the front and a dehumidifier under the house. This has been the worst problem to get rid of!