I am looking for a humidifier since lately I have been running my Central Air Conditioning system 24/7 and my wife thinks it might be too dry for my 1 year old. (According the digital hygrometer it is only 40 something percent) I have already checked with 3C and a maybe SOGO. They kind of looked at me like I was crazy and I had a lot of explaining to do.
Anyone know where I can get one. I thought about buying one on the internet in the USA and mailing it here. They only cost about US$30 to US$100 but the mailing fee will be more than US$100. Just doesn’t seem right.
A home humidifier? In Taiwan? Good luck, because you’re going to need it.
Here’s a thought. Why not simply turn down the a/c for a while each day and open a window. That’ll soon humidify your place.
Anyway, I thought you were planning to sell the kid to a petshop.
Doesn’t the central aircon have individual vents for each room? And I bet that even with the ac on, if you just opened the window it would soon raise the humidity.
40% sounds hellish low to me though – I’d have irritated eyes and a tickly throat if it was that dry.
Put several bowls of water (the bigger the surface the quicker the evaporation), preferrably warm or even hot (again, for quicker results), out of reach into the kid’s room, play around with it for a few days until you get the desired humidity percentage. But I agree: even a baby’s room needs to be ventilated once in a while, especially if you’ve got the aircon shut, constantly circulating the same air …
Just get a few Forumosans in your room to start talking, that’ll make enough hot air to humidify the place. Or maybe a few of Sandman’s stinky beer farts.
I opened the window. That should do the trick, I just have to get the balence between keeping the room cool and the humidity at a reasonable level. My wife tried the water last night, but I forgot to check the hygrometer. Thanks for the advice.
What about an evaporative cooler. That’s going to cut the A/C bill a little and kick some water vapour into the house.
My SO’s parents run one and A/C probably for this reason.
You do your bit for the greenhouse gases DB. We run the A/C at around 25 degrees in the living area so its not that big a deal and it cuts the humidity. Electricity bills run around 1,000nt a month. Compared to the big house in Australia I had 8 years ago with commercial heating and cooling running at around 2,300nt (100 aussie) a week its not a big deal.
Hobart, maybe your running yours cold? Have to be down around 21 degrees to get the humidity that low?
Personal choice of course same as DB choosing the natural evaporative system nature intended.
[quote=“Ironman”]Hobart, maybe your running yours cold? Have to be down around 21 degrees to get the humidity that low?
Personal choice of course same as DB choosing the natural evaporative system nature intended.[/quote]
Actually, not that cold, the house came with high quality double pane windows and it actually has some sort of insulation in the form of padding on the walls, whcih also cuts down the noise. The house is usually about 24 degrees. The setting on the central air unit doesn’t actually have temperature settings like the wall units. The air ducts are not extremely efficient as the floor where the unit is located gets colder than the other floors.
What is this evaporative cooler you are talking about?
I just got the facts from the daughter. “Dad got it at the rubbish dump” I was thinking that would be the place to go.
They are very simple. Its just a fan blowing over a revolving mesh that is wetted in a bath at the bottom of the unit then keeps rotating and drying.
Must be cheap new if you could find it.
I’m envious of the double glazed windows and actual wall insulation. Sure your not posting from another country. That type of thing does not exist in Taiwan.
Evaporative coolers are more energy efficient than aircons and are intended for use in low-humidity areas/rooms, yes. But in my view, you don’t always have to throw money at each little problem that comes up (o.k., hence the rubbish dump argument I guess … ), plus having the aircon running and thus lowering the humidity artificially, only to then install an additional electric device like e.g. an evaporative cooler just doesn’t make any sense to me, sorry.
In the low-humidity area I’m from e.g., we have especially designed earthen-ware or clay bowls that fit onto the radiators in winter to supply the rooms with humidity, very simple solution and very effective. Hobart, I know you got the money and you like gadgets, but less is more here …
[quote=“Ironman”]I’m envious of the double glazed windows and actual wall insulation. Sure your not posting from another country. That type of thing does not exist in Taiwan.[/quote] I sent you a PM inviting you to my place to have a look. I may be moving within the year and will be sure to post it here for sale. Its got central heating, oven, dishwasher, American size fridge and roofdeck and parking with European style architecture and design. Taiwan people call it a house I call it a townhouse. Without the three balconeys, parking and roof deck it has 48 pings of useable space, including other rarities like closets and attic spaces for storage. It seems much bigger than 48 pings. It currently is set up for two bedrooms, but has two maybe even three other rooms that could be used as bedrooms that are now being used a home office and the other a den. The view from every floor and there are 3.5 floors, is from Keelung to Linkou and can take in most all of Taipei. It is located in Sijhih on a mountain kind of up behind the Acer building off of HsinTaiWu Rd. Price would be cheap too, not more than NT$11,150,000. I may through in a lot of the Balinese mahogony and teak furniture and even fix up the place to your liking in terms of wood floors and/or carpeting and the change the fabric on the walls to your liking. The only problem is that you have to live in Sijhih and it would be best to have a car with which you could use to get to just about anywhere in Taipei within 30 minutes as Sijhih is at the juncture of 3 highways. There are a lot of other foreigners living in the community as well. Many of them purchased their home like me others rent. The community pool ROCKS! It is huge with a view of Taipei. There are also tennis courts, basketball courts, squash, activity rooms and a gym too. Plenty of parking near my place for extra cars for free if you have more than one or two cars. Hehehe…sorry to sell to you guys so hard, I am just proud of the place as anyone who has lived here for a long time knows that this kind of place is very unique. As Ironman says, he doesn’t even think I live in Taiwan!
A variation of this was used by students from Korea who lived in my centrally-heated hall of residence at Hull University (one of the three great universities of England, according to Captain Blackadder): they also used a bowl of water, but to give more surface area for evaporation, they draped a towel over a radiator or chair, with the bottom edge hanging in the bowl.
Alternatively, if you dry clothes at home, you could put them on a drying rack in your son’s room.
), plus having the aircon running and thus lowering the humidity artificially, only to then install an additional electric device like e.g. an evaporative cooler just doesn’t make any sense to me, sorry.