Comments about Honeywell HE365H8908 (HE365H) Enviracaire Elite Powered Humidifier:

I am writing this review because I use reviews to make my decisions on products. I spent about a month researching whole house systems, everything from efficiency to ease of install. It came down to the fan powered flow-throughs and the Honeywell Truesteam. Simply put, with the flowthroughs, you'll use minimal electricity, but will use a good amount of water. With the Truesteam, you'll have nearly no water waste, but even the smallest unit uses a 7 amp draw, equal to 840 Watts on a 120V circuit. A hairdryer pulls 1600-2000 Watts, for comparison purposes. I had heard of several owners complaining of the Truesteam significantly raising their electricity bill, as well as running into countless problems with hard water ruining the heating element. In my home, I have hard water and my water bill is constant, so regardless of my water use, my bill stays the same. Thus, my choice was made to go with a flow-through.

Of course if you decide on any humidifier, you need to decide which humidistat to use. Go manual if it doesn't get too cold in the winter, but if it gets below 20F, get one of the automatic controls (if you can run a wire from the humidistat to the outside of the home for the sensor). OR go crazy and get the Prestige which uses a wireless sensor and handles your entire home air quality components. In my application, I went manual because it's the cheapest model and I don't need the automatic adjustment since it hardly gets so cold outside in the winter that I would need to adjust my RH indoors to prevent sweating or frosting windows.

I ordered the Skuttle current sensing relay that senses when the fan is on, as this type of humidifier only functions when the fan is on, and does NOT operate independent of the HVAC system, with the manual control. It works flawlessly and the wiring scheme was beyond simple. When the fan comes on, it senses the current from the fan motor's common wire (the ONLY wire you need to know on your furnace in this type of install) and turns the solenoid on to allow the water to flow through the unit. No use of a gaudy sail switch or anything. Everything is housed within my furnace.

A couple things that need to be done with flow-throughs versus steam units. You should really tap off of a hot water line. It humidifies so much better than cold, for obvious reasons. Installing on the supply ductwork rather than the return will also yield better results.

So, even though this review was a bit long-winded, I hope I was able to encompass the weigh-in that I went through over the past month to pick the right unit for me. Honeywell items work well, but Aprilaire seems to work well too. If you don't want to waste water and want humidity on immediate demand, Truesteam will work great at the cost of electricity, but something many should know that most reviews won't tell you: water is absorbed into the woodwork into your home. It will help maintain the humidity in your home even when your furnace is off. My home went from 25% humidity to 37% in about 2 hours after install. Overnight, without the furnace on (so no humidifier either), the humidity only dropped to 33%, and that's just in one day. Woodwork takes about a week to absorb the moisture. This is why I feel the immediate demand for humidity just isn't needed in most applications. It'll maintain the humidity itself, unless you live in the desert. I hope this helps everyone in their search for the perfect whole-house system.