Room humidifiers

[wcap]

I'll repeat here something that I have mentioned a few times already in previous threads: If you live in a place with very cold winters (e.g. the upper Midwest in the U.S.), in the cold parts of the winter you probably should not be humidifying your house to the level where your guitars will be happy outside of humidified cases. I've been there and done that (due to having large numbers of aquaria in the past), and the result can be mildew problems, excessive condensation (and ice) on the insides of windows, condensation in the attic, and some structural damage.

This would not be a concern for the OP (in Texas), but for some others I'd say be careful what you wish for.

See this article (from a Minnesota newspaper) for indoor humidity recommendations: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/11468916.html

From the article:

• If outside temperature is 20 to 40 degrees, humidity indoors should not be more than 40 percent.
  
• If outside temperature is 10 to 20 degrees, humidity indoors should not be more than 35 percent.
  
• If outside temperature is 0 to 10 degrees, humidity indoors should not be more than 30 percent.
  
• If outside temperature is 10-below to 0, humidity indoors should not be more than 25 percent.
  
• If outside temperature is 20-below to 10-below, humidity indoors should not be more than 20 percent.
  
• If outdoor temperature is lower than 20-below, inside humidity should not be more than 15 percent.

Higher quality (better insulated) windows can allow you to go with higher humidity levels without so many problems, of course.

But on a day like today (our outdoor temperature is 2 degrees F below zero as I write this) our house can't handle humidity levels that are safe for instruments kept out of their cases.

[GuitarLight]

The whole house humidifier from Heaven.
http://www.sears.com/kenmore-humidif...1&blockType=G1

[MikeD]

I am quite OCD about the environment in my guitar room, but I have some nice guitars so for me it's worth obsessing over temp and humidity to ensure I don't have any issues. I have an evaporative humidifier in my guitar room AND a ceiling fan (about 9' above the floor to the blades, so hitting it with a guitar is not an issue) which I keep on low to circulate the air in the room. The room has radiant heat for the main source of heat through the tile floor, and a small baseboard electrical heating unit for those cold New England winter spells that hit us from time to time. I target a temp of 65* in the winter and I keep the humidity between 42% and 48%. I keep the door closed at all times AND there is weather stripping installed under the door to help seal the room off. I fill the humidifier about every 1-2 days depending on the weather/humidity during the winter. My room is about twice as big as yours with vaulted ceilings that are about 16' high in the center of the room, so circulating the air with the ceiling fan really helps to keep the whole room at a constant temp and humidity. I have 2 Abbeon analog humidity/temp gauges on the wall which are calibrated to a certified Cooper industrial temp/humidity testing unit (which gets sent out for calibration and certification every few years) and a third small digital scale for a reference. I have not had any issues with my guitars doing these things, by YMMV.

[ukejon]

Originally Posted by GuitarLight

The whole house humidifier from Heaven.
http://www.sears.com/kenmore-humidif...1&blockType=G1

Yes, yes, yes. This humidifier is also sold as the Essick 1407:



I had been using a single-fan Essick whole house humidifier for my music room and it had to work relatively hard to keep above 40%. This new two fan model is far more efficient. I can keep the fans on the lowest (quietest) setting and easily keep RH in the mid-40s.