Whole-Home Humidifier Installation in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Humidifier installation in Ann Arbor is a job we often do alongside a fall furnace tune-up or a new furnace, because the access, the water line and the wiring are already in play. For a pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side house in Kerrytown, that means a bypass or fan-powered unit chosen for the square footage and the way the furnace cycles, plumbed to a cold line with a real shutoff, drained to the floor drain or sump, and controlled by a humidistat with an outdoor sensor. Temprasure serves all of Ann Arbor, MI and quotes the whole thing as one price before we cut into the plenum.

Ann Arbor houses and what that means for humidifiers

Ann Arbor gives us almost every housing type in one zip code. The Old West Side and Old Fourth Ward are full of 1880s–1920s frame houses with stone or rubble foundations, fieldstone basements that stay damp, and furnaces that replaced boilers or gravity units sometime in the 1960s or 70s. Many of those homes still have cast-iron radiators fed by a boiler, and a surprising number have both a boiler and a separate forced-air system added for cooling. Burns Park and Ann Arbor Hills houses are larger 1920s–50s builds with plaster walls, so getting a second return or a bigger supply trunk in is slow work. The ranches and split-levels of the west side were built with 80,000 to 100,000 BTU furnaces that are now oversized for insulated versions of the same house. Condos near Briarwood and Pittsfield Village often have furnaces in closets or attics with tight clearances. Student rentals near campus run the oldest equipment in the city, and landlords routinely call us for emergency service and new-purchase inspections.

Furnace cycling in Ann Arbor subdivisions decides bypass versus fan-powered. The pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side builds around Kerrytown got furnaces that were oversized by habit, and an oversized furnace runs short cycles that do not give a bypass humidifier enough blower time to evaporate much water. A fan-powered unit runs its own blower across the pad and keeps up regardless of how briefly the furnace runs. We check the furnace size against the house and the typical run time before recommending, and for the Ann Arbor two-stories where the upstairs is already warm, we also confirm the humidifier is on the supply plenum where it distributes to every register, not on a return where it treats air that is about to be filtered.

Indoor air in the pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side across Ann Arbor is a winter problem more than a summer one. Furnaces on DTE Energy service run long cycles from December through March, humidity indoors drops into the teens, and the house near Nichols Arboretum or out by Burns Park starts to feel brittle. A whole-home humidifier, correctly installed and correctly maintained, is one of the least expensive comfort upgrades we do, and Ann Arbor is close enough to our shop, 7 miles, that we can usually install one within days of the call.

Local details we plan around in Ann Arbor

• The city's two historic districts, the Old West Side and the Old Fourth Ward, regulate exterior changes, so condenser placement on a street-facing wall often needs Historic District Commission sign-off.
• The city's water is treated at its own plant and softened, so water heater sediment is lighter here than in surrounding townships on well water.
• A lot of pre-1950 houses have been converted to duplexes or student rentals, which means two systems crammed into one basement and undersized gas lines serving both.
• The Huron River cuts a deep valley through the north side of Ann Arbor, and the Northside, Lower Town and Gallup Park neighborhoods feel it as morning fog, heavier dew and basements that sweat in July. The downtown core holds heat with all its brick and pavement, so attics and upper floors there run several degrees hotter than the leafy blocks of Burns Park and the Old West Side, where mature oaks and maples shade roofs and cut peak cooling loads noticeably.