where you are.. might make a big difference between needing something and paying a salesman snake oil fees...

big city name....

in my MI.. in ground freeze ice cold MI ... by mid january the furnace has burned all the humidity out of the house... so imo.. a humidifier is requisite ... unless you want dry scratchy skin.. and a cat that walks around like a charged ball of electricity .. lol..

i thought all A/C are dehumidifiers... but i havent had enough coffee to figure that out right now.. someone else can chime in on that... you dont need a lot of cooling if you can remove some of the humidity ...

in my experience ... dehumidifiers are more for peeps with damp basements.. who dont circulate the air out of the basement.. so you run such down there to remove excess water ... i solved that problem by putting a cold air return at the floor in the basement.. and moving the air around the house...

ken

Have you measured the humidity in the winter and the summer? If so what are your typical values?

Is the humidity problem in the basement or throughout the house? Does the AC run in short cycles?

Outside air infiltration in the winter will cause the humidity level to be lower. Tighter windows and doors might be needed. I personally would install a humidifier as a last resort. They become a constant maintenance item in my opinion.

@mike_homein the summer, particularly in the mornings, the kitchen is 55% lately, and decreases in the afternoon to around 45%. We have not measured in the winter. We use humidifers/dehudehumidifiers in the finished basement, but am concerned with the new kitchen cabinets on the 1st flr staying regulated. This area has new french doors and windows, but not the rest of the house.

The AC does not run in short cycles from what I can tell.

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 we are in CT

Cost of a whole-house dehumidifier or humidifier will vary depending on the size and capacity of the unit, as well as the features it has. You can expect to pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars for a whole-house dehumidifier or humidifier.

These factors al play a role in whether you should go with one or not:

• The size of your home: The larger your home, the larger the dehumidifier or humidifier you will need.
• The climate in your area: If you live in a humid climate, you will need a more powerful dehumidifier or humidifier.
• The type of heating and cooling system you have: If you have a central heating and cooling system, you can install a dehumidifier or humidifier in the ductwork. This is the most efficient way to dehumidify or humidify your home.
• Your budget: Whole-house dehumidifiers and humidifiers can be expensive, so you need to decide how much you are willing to spend.

A dehumidifier integrated in your HVAC system is not the most efficient way to dehumidify your home. It's much less energy-efficient (and more expensive) than an air conditioning system which is properly designed for the latent load.

If you live in a humid climate, odds are good that you won't need a humidifier. You certainly won't need a higher capacity one than if your climate zone is a dry climate.

We have a whole house dehumidifier for our walk out basement and portable dehumidifier for our main floor. There was not enough air exchange between main floor and walk out basement for whole house dehumidifier to keep humidity down on main level. We also have portable humidifiers for the winter months for our main level. It gets very humid here in the spring and summer and very dry in the winter. Our house is not tight.

We like to keep humidity below 50%. That is what feels most comfortable to us. 45% is ideal. Our AC could keep humidity under 55% but if it is raining or the AC is not running because it is not hot enough out then the humidity creeps up. We try to maintain humidity levels at 40% in the winter. I am not a fan of whole house humidifiers. I have heard so many stories about mold and humidifiers. With the portable ones I can clean them and not worry about mold. We do not care if it is less efficient or more expensive. It is about comfort. For us it is worth it.

45-55% is not a big problem for cabinets. Under 40 and over 60% is generally an issue with wood products. Honestly, well constructed cabinets aren't particularly sensitive from what I can tell.

OP - you have a humidifier in the basement? That is very unusual so I suspect you mistyped. In the Eastern US, humidity levels are generally pretty high. They go low when we a/c a lot which is why your kitchen goes lower during the day (presumably). Humidity levels also fall when outside air comes into the house in the winter.

A finished basement rarely has a significant a/c load (perhaps a walkout with a lot of west facing windows) because there is cool ground temps and minimal solar load. A finished basement also leaks relatively little air from the outside - concrete walls with few penetrations and then packed dirt - that is fairly airtight. Now - if you force outside air in by various means, you certainly can have a humidity problem. But this is pretty uncommon.

So basements tend to almost never need a humidifier.

My overall advice - just wait and don't obsess about 45-55%. What will matter in winter is your infiltration from the outside and that is cheaper and better to fix than adding a humidifier. That is - fix the infiltration problem first (or at least make attempts to).

Our basement furnace has an integrated humidifier that we set around 30-35% in the winter. Our second furnace/blower in the attic for the second floor does not have one. We have a portable 22 pint dehumidifier in the (unfinished) basement that we empty 2-3 times a day and it keeps the humidity down there around 50%. We also run a box fan down there on low during the day just to circulate air. Works for us! We thought about doing a humidifier that would go in to a constant drain pipe but never got around to it and now it doesn't seem to be an issue.

nskeca, we live in western MA so our weather is pretty much the same as you.