🚀 go-pugleaf

> ... It seems madness to me to pay lots of
> money for a contraption that's going to wreck my computer terminal
> unless I feed it distilled water and grow mold, amoebae, and
> other critters unless I clean it every day or so with bleach 
> (I got this info from CR and from medical journal articles about
> the allergenic potential of humidifiers)...

I think you are being too harsh on the ultrasonic humidifiers.  They are
not noted for mold/etc. problems (certainly mine has nothing visible along
those lines, and it's virtually never cleaned), and the ultrasound appears
to sterilize the mist it pumps out.  The dust is a nuisance, but a simple
dust cover keeps it out of the one or two things that I really don't want
dust in.

I believe you can get ultrasonic humidifiers that have a filter cartridge
to purify the water on the way in.  (It needs replacing now and then, of
course.)

> My solution has been cheap, healthy and low-tech: baking pans full
> of water over my heating registers.

I used to do something along those lines.  An ultrasonic humidifier is
considerably better, in my opinion.  (Note that I don't have significant
allergy problems, which might change things.)

PS Have you considered the mold, amoebae, etc. that are probably growing
in your baking pans?
-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
condemned to reinvent it, poorly.    | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry