Whole-Home Humidifier Installation in Chelsea, Michigan

If the air in your Chelsea home feels cold at 70 degrees, the problem is often moisture, not the furnace. Dry air pulls heat off skin faster, and the 1890s–1920s village homes and 1990s–2010s subdivisions on the edges construction common in M-52 north of town leaks enough that indoor humidity drops into the teens by December. Temprasure installs whole-home humidifiers in Chelsea that bring that back into the comfortable range, and most households turn the thermostat down a degree or two once the static stops, which shows up on the Consumers Energy in much of the city, DTE Energy on some outlying roads gas bill. The estimate is free, the price is flat, and the control is set up so it works without you thinking about it.

Chelsea houses and what that means for humidifiers

The in-town housing is dominated by 1890s–1940s two-stories, foursquares and bungalows on fieldstone or early block basements with plaster walls and ductwork retrofitted into a house that was designed for a coal furnace or stoves. Flues in these homes are often unlined brick, and we see a lot of 80 percent furnaces that have been venting into a chimney that should have been relined years ago. The post-war ring along McKinley Street and Freer Road is 1950s–70s ranches and capes, some on slabs, with electric baseboard still present in a few. Chelsea Fairways, Heritage Pointe and the other 1990s–2010s subdivisions are colonials and ranches on full basements with builder-grade 80 percent furnaces and single-stage air conditioners that are now hitting replacement age. Outside the city on Werkner, Waterloo and Cavanaugh Lake Roads, we see lakefront cottages that were winterized, farmhouses with multiple additions, and newer acreage homes on propane and well water.

Water quality in Chelsea shapes how we install and maintain humidifiers. The municipal water in town and the well water in the rural parts of Washtenaw County both carry enough hardness that a pad is finished after one winter, and the iron in some wells around M-52 north of town stains the distribution tray and plugs the solenoid screen. We install units with easily accessible pads, show the homeowner how to swap one, and change it on every fall tune-up. For Chelsea homes on a softener we tee the humidifier into the hard side when the manufacturer calls for it, because softened water leaves a different residue on the pad. Small details, but they are the difference between a humidifier that works for fifteen years and one that quits in three.

Winter air in Chelsea gets as dry as any in Washtenaw County, and the 1890s–1920s village homes and 1990s–2010s subdivisions on the edges around Werkner Road area and Chelsea Hospital district were built loose enough that the furnace spends all winter heating cold, dry outside air that leaks in. The result is static shocks, cracked trim, bloody noses and a house that feels colder than the thermostat says. A whole-home humidifier mounted on the furnace fixes all of that for a modest cost, and we install and service them across Chelsea, from the blocks near the Chelsea Clock Tower to the streets out by Heritage Pointe, about 36 minutes from our shop.

Local details we plan around in Chelsea

• The city runs its own water system from wells, and the water is hard enough that we recommend annual flushing on tank water heaters here.
• Outside the city limits, propane furnaces and water heaters are routine, and propane conversions and regulator problems are a normal part of our Chelsea calls.
• Electric service is split between Consumers Energy and DTE depending on the exact address, and homes just outside town may be on one for gas and the other for electric.
• Chelsea is high and open compared with the river towns to the east, and it gets more wind and a bit more snow than Ypsilanti, with polar vortex nights that run a few degrees colder. The lakes in the Waterloo Recreation Area and around Cavanaugh Lake add summer humidity for the homes closest to them. Heavy tree cover downtown and on the older residential streets shades roofs in July, while the newer subdivisions on the east side have little mature canopy yet.