ᐅ Controlled residential ventilation Dry air – are humidifiers the right solution?

LuckyDuke schrieb:
Hello friends of controlled residential ventilation,

I hope I’m not reviving a too old thread, but the title of the thread does not yet fully reflect its content. Because in addition to an enthalpy exchanger, an active air humidification system also falls under the category of "humidifiers." And this is exactly where my question comes in:

My heating engineer recommends a controlled residential ventilation system from Pluggit. As is well known, this company does not offer enthalpy exchangers and lists reasons such as:

• Only part of the moisture can be recovered, so air drying in winter is only delayed.
• This has already been mentioned here. Of course, if you regularly shower or engage in other moisture-generating activities, there should be enough moisture. But one can question how universally this applies to everyone.
• Moisture transfer in the enthalpy exchanger is known to be done by osmosis. Thus, there is always a water film on the membrane on the supply air side, which must be taken up by the supply air.
• Bacteria do not pass from the exhaust air to the supply air, as the membrane pores are too small for microorganisms. However, bacteria can form in the water film on the humid supply air side in the warm environment. Manufacturers always argue that the pores are small enough and also say that they apply an antibacterial coating to the membrane. In my opinion, they do this precisely because bacteria would form on the supply air side without this coating. Otherwise, it would not be necessary because no bacteria can physically pass through the membrane from the exhaust air side to the supply air side. To me, this is indirect evidence that this can be a problem (!). Otherwise, this coating would not be applied.
• Does anyone also know how long such an antibacterial coating remains effective? Every coating loses effectiveness sooner or later.
• Active humidity control. You can set your desired humidity level individually, and it is controlled via a feedback loop with a humidity sensor in the exhaust air.

So now the question: Based on the reasons stated, is the investment in an actively controlled steam humidifier, like the one Pluggit offers, worthwhile? The price is similarly steep—about 2500 € compared to 500–1000 € for a passive enthalpy exchanger. Additionally, there is the electrical power consumption, for which I have no sense yet (of course depending on the chosen humidity level).

Thank you very much for your opinions and experiences