Humidity control

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swyman
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Post by swyman » Tue. Dec. 14, 2021 9:46 am

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong section, mods move if is the case. So now that I have no boiler issues for the 2nd year in a row it's time to tackle humidity control. I have had an automatic unit in the return but only ran when call for heat and didn't do much. Last season I said screw it and installed a standalone unit that runs nonstop but did raise the level but can not get humidity above low 30% and it gets really dry when it's cold. So I just put the automatic back online with the standalone and now levels are getting where I want them. I don't like filling the standalone everyday or the noise and I have a humidistat that controls the automatic unit.
I want to come up with a way to wire the humidistat to control the fan blower without blowing the furnace circuit board. See my thermostat heat call just turns the blower on and sends signal to the Taco controller to circulator and if I have 2 24v inputs on the blower, wouldn't it back feed and turn on the circulator on the Taco controller? Plus if I had a call for heat and humidistat was calling to run, 2 24v inputs on blower function would blow my circuit board..... had this happen when I was trying to hookup my backup system. There has to be a relatively simple way to do this so asking for some electrical input!

 
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Dec. 14, 2021 1:59 pm

My solution would be to have only 1 - 24 volt power source. That way if the blower relay gets fed by both systems, its the same power. Is that doable? Just make sure you get the polarity right.

I don't know if that's the right solution or if there is a better one lol

 
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Post by McGiever » Tue. Dec. 14, 2021 3:15 pm

Yes, only want a single 24 VAC control transformer, it’s okay with multiple loads within the rated capacity of said transformer.

No polarity with AC.

 
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swyman
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Post by swyman » Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 9:21 am

Lightning wrote:
Tue. Dec. 14, 2021 1:59 pm
My solution would be to have only 1 - 24 volt power source. That way if the blower relay gets fed by both systems, its the same power. Is that doable? Just make sure you get the polarity right.

I don't know if that's the right solution or if there is a better one lol
makes perfect sense, just have to figure out how to do it!


 
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swyman
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Post by swyman » Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 9:23 am

McGiever wrote:
Tue. Dec. 14, 2021 3:15 pm
Yes, only want a single 24 VAC control transformer, it’s okay with multiple loads within the rated capacity of said transformer.

No polarity with AC.
Makes sense, just need to figure it out.

 
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Post by McGiever » Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 11:22 pm

swyman wrote:
Tue. Dec. 14, 2021 9:46 am
I want to come up with a way to wire the humidistat to control the fan blower without blowing the furnace circuit board.

See my thermostat heat call just turns the blower on and sends signal to the Taco controller to circulator

and if I have 2 24v inputs on the blower, wouldn't it back feed and turn on the circulator on the Taco controller?

Plus if I had a call for heat and humidistat was calling to run, 2 24v inputs on blower function would blow my circuit board..... had this happen when I was trying to hookup my backup system.

There has to be a relatively simple way to do this so asking for some electrical input!
Simple, leave the blower to run constantly from the selector on the thermostat and wire the humidistat to open and close the circuit for the water solenoid of the humidifier.
This won’t work if you already use constant hot water circulation through the furnace air coil…but there is another way even with that being the case.

There is a 24volt device which you clamp around a single wire for your blower motor which senses whenever there is a current flow to blower and there upon closes a circuit to power the 24vac humidifier water solenoid.

To have humidistat control simply wire humidistat in series between 24vac solenoid and Model 50 sensor.
Get your 24vac hot for the Model 50 from R at transformer or where thermostat R control terminal is. Your common for water solenoid is wire C.
Follow this diagram…
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.supplyhouse.com/produ ... nstall.pdf

Here’s the device…
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Aprilaire-50-APR-Curr ... fLEALw_wcB

 
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Post by swyman » Thu. Dec. 16, 2021 7:33 am

McGiever wrote:
Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 11:22 pm
Simple, leave the blower to run constantly from the selector on the thermostat and wire the humidistat to open and close the circuit for the water solenoid of the humidifier.
This won’t work if you already use constant hot water circulation through the furnace air coil…but there is another way even with that being the case.

There is a 24volt device which you clamp around a single wire for your blower motor which senses whenever there is a current flow to blower and there upon closes a circuit to power the 24vac humidifier water solenoid.

To have humidistat control simply wire humidistat in series between 24vac solenoid and Model 50 sensor.
Get your 24vac hot for the Model 50 from R at transformer or where thermostat R control terminal is. Your common for water solenoid is wire C.
Follow this diagram…
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.supplyhouse.com/produ ... nstall.pdf

Here’s the device…
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Aprilaire-50-APR-Curr ... fLEALw_wcB
Thanks McG, I'm currently using the Taco circulator controller to cycle the furnace coil on a heat call. That will allow me to do what you instructed. I have a 700 series AprilAire that came with a digital humidistat that also senses outdoor temps and will automatically adjust humidity to the correct percentage per what it's doing outside.....sounds good if it works!

 
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Post by McGiever » Thu. Dec. 16, 2021 10:18 am

S then you must of had the diagram already for wiring the AprilAire digital humidistat with the Model 50.
I answered this same question last year for another member and likewise turned out he already held the diagram showing to use the Model 50.

You may find Model 50 at eBay for a nice price. They can be new or used there. I’m happy to buy used for a really great price. 😁

Do report back when you have success!


 
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Post by swyman » Fri. Dec. 17, 2021 10:02 am

McGiever wrote:
Thu. Dec. 16, 2021 10:18 am
S then you must of had the diagram already for wiring the AprilAire digital humidistat with the Model 50.
I answered this same question last year for another member and likewise turned out he already held the diagram showing to use the Model 50.

You may find Model 50 at eBay for a nice price. They can be new or used there. I’m happy to buy used for a really great price. 😁

Do report back when you have success!
I had an old model when we installed the furnace and after years of service the trunk rusted out from leaks. I installed a new trunk and this humidifier but hooked it up off the existing old humidistat not thinking I would ever need the digital one or the feature it had so I just used the old one. Now my new Google Nest thermostat tells what the humidity is, I can see why we would get a poke from petting the cat on those super cold winter days! I guess I should have started by looking at the directions for the digital controls.

 
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Post by McGiever » Fri. Dec. 17, 2021 1:14 pm

Yup! Digital humidistat diagram included above. 😀

 
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Post by swyman » Wed. Jan. 05, 2022 3:01 pm

McGiever wrote:
Fri. Dec. 17, 2021 1:14 pm
Yup! Digital humidistat diagram included above. 😀
I need to revisit this with you after finally getting the chance to do more research. Right now the humidistat runs when the blower comes on. In your previous post you said if I get power from the same source as the thermostat it would not double voltage and be safe? So use the furnace controller 24v that supplies the thermostat, I could also run another wire from that connection to power the humidistat. Then run the call for heat from thermostat to fan input and can also run the output from the humidistat to the same fan terminal and would be fine? So the fan would run from either input or both at same time if both calling to be satisfied? I think if the humidistat was energized, the signal would back feed to the Taco controller tuning on the circulator? Reason I think this is if I turn the fan on from the thermostat, the circulator turns on also. Sorry for my confusion, I'm doing my best to wrap my head around it. I know exactly what I want it to do, just need to fond the right relay to do it! (I think)

 
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Post by McGiever » Wed. Jan. 05, 2022 8:45 pm

Any single relay could tell fan to run using 2 inputs.
Furnace “G” wire does that already with factory relay now by default.

But quite honestly it’s the blower that is to signal the humidifier to run not the other way around. And then the humidistat wired in series shuts humidifier down when % humidity set point is met so as to not raise humidity too high.

Diagram provided shows this.

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