Is anyone else out there using a humidifier, or
                have any figures on volumes and surface areas of
                dwellings for absorption of moisture?
In Canada there are only two devices you really must have in your
home.
The first is a humidifier. This machine uses electricity to drive
a belt to spray water from a reservoir pan onto a foam envelope
through which a fan passes air. The outcoming air is water-laden
and counters the drying effect of having the heating turned on to
overcome the cold. The humidifier pan must be refilled daily.
For the other six months of the year a DE-humidifier is in use.
This machine uses electricity to refrigerate coils over which a
fan blows air. The coils grab moisture from the air thereby
reducing the dampness that arises from the humid summer air
floating around in the basement. The dehumidifier pan must be
emptied daily.
(Some smart-aleck is about to ask me how I like living in
Toronto)
I cranked out the humidifier a month ago and settled into my
regular evening routine of refilling the pan with six litres of
water. Every day for a month now I've dropped six litres of water
into the pan, so 180 litres of water has been pumped into the
air. The house plants love it, of course, but SO DO THE WALLS!
I figure that maybe 50% of that moisture, 90 litres, has soaked
into the plaster walls of the apartment.
Last night, and tonight, the pan needed only about one litre of
water. It seems to me that the walls have now achieved their load
of water and that they act as a reservoir, supplying moisture for
the air I breathe as I toss and turn restlessly at night,
pondering the significance of this business.
This is not critical, I'm just fascinated that the intake dropped
so abruptly and by so much.
Christopher.Greaves@CapCanada.Com    www.Interlog.Com/~CGreaves
 * 1st 2.00b #6263 * Don't Brake!
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