> The air in a modern home is often so dry that my nose start running the minute I enter. I don't want to live in that sort of climate.
In cold climates, the ability to safely humidify a house depends mainly on having good enough insulation and air sealing that the indoor humidity doesn’t condense on cold surfaces and rot the building. This is especially relevant near windows.
So if you want decent indoor humidity when it’s genuinely cold out, you want double- or triple-paned windows with insulated edges, proper air sealing near the windows, and possibly even an energy recovery ventilator.
(Or you can live in an old house, spend stupid amounts of money to heat it all the way to 63 degrees for a few hours a day, be cold and dry, and wonder what the heck anyone was thinking when they designed their single-pipe steam heating system.)
P.S. It is supposedly possible to properly design a single pipe steam heating system that achieves a comfortable temperature in more than one room. If so, I have never seen such a thing.
> It is supposedly possibly to properly design a single pipe steam heating system that achieves a comfortable temperature in more than one room.
If you are interested in learning more about this "possibility", particularly if you have a steam system that you hate, you'd probably enjoy Dan Holohan's books. His basic thesis is that when designed and installed, they worked well, but the knowledge necessary to keep them functional has been lost over the years. Here's a New Yorker profile of him: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/steamed-the-jo...
In cold climates, the ability to safely humidify a house depends mainly on having good enough insulation and air sealing that the indoor humidity doesn’t condense on cold surfaces and rot the building. This is especially relevant near windows.
So if you want decent indoor humidity when it’s genuinely cold out, you want double- or triple-paned windows with insulated edges, proper air sealing near the windows, and possibly even an energy recovery ventilator.
(Or you can live in an old house, spend stupid amounts of money to heat it all the way to 63 degrees for a few hours a day, be cold and dry, and wonder what the heck anyone was thinking when they designed their single-pipe steam heating system.)
P.S. It is supposedly possible to properly design a single pipe steam heating system that achieves a comfortable temperature in more than one room. If so, I have never seen such a thing.