I have a stand alone whole house steam humidifier. It came with it's own mechanical control. It has it's own self contained fan and does not require the furnace to be operating. I have a zwave honeywell thermostat that controls the furnace, shows the humidity, but can't control it. What would be the easiest way to control and monitor the humidifier?
Is the Honeywell thermostat just not hooked up to control it or is it that it doesn't have the ability to if it was connected to the mechanical controls.
I know the Ecobeee thermostat has the ability to integrate with a humidifier in it's settings but i don't have any experience with it.
I would imagine if the mechanical control is just a humidistat with a switch you may be able to use a regular switch or relay and use other humidity sensors in the house to determine to turn on that switch. You may want to discuss this with your HVAC person of choice to see what that Mechanical controller does to understand what your solution fully needs to control.
So, you could put a remote outlet in for the humidifier then based on the humidity reading from the thermostat kick on the humidifier. I have one attached to my furnace and do this (except I have a relay in place wired to the furnace control so it doesn't come on when the furnace isn't on) So essentially when on, humidifier on based on humidity reading from the thermostat or other sensor then rule ignored if humidity within proper range
I use three steam humidifiers in the winter throughout my house. Each is on a smart plug that turn's on when the humidity reading from my Ecobee Thermostat drops below a certain threshold.
I like the Idea of using other sensors and turning on the steamer. The control that came with the humidifier is a simple humidistat. The honeywell thermostat shows humidity on it's screen but does not have the ability to control. I am very new to Hubitat and am just starting to figure out automations.
So it sounds like a simple humidistat that probably trips a relay to turn on humidifer.
You may want to look at changing your Honewell Thermostat for one that can also turn on the humidifier. I know that Ecobee has the ability to control a humidifier, but I somewhat question the Humidity reading on mine at times.
Just to help understand exactly what you have what is your controlling device make/model and humidifier. This is allot of speculation without knowing more about how it all is wired up.
What is the model of the honeywell thermostat.
I just spoke to an hvac buddy of mine. He didn't know of a way to run an independent humidifier with the thermostat. The thermostat usually turns on the fan in the furnace also because of the duct mounted humidifier. This unit is a stand alone with its own fan that operates when the humidifier is turned on and is not part of the house duct system. The hvac guy also stated that it would be good for the control to look at outdoor temperature and adjust the humidity up or down. his suggestion was to leave the existing zwave thermostat running the furnace, and purchase another one to use for humidity control only. That seems like an expensive humidistat and kind of a waste of the thermostat's capability.
So it is not connected to the HVAC Duct work at all. Does it have it's own duct work to blow into each room? I have heard of Whole home humidifiers having a bypass to allow the to operate independelty, But not completely isolated from the rest of the HVAC.
What is the make and model of the humidifier?
I get the comment about looking at Outdoor temp. One of the big problems I read about in the past when I was researching it was the use of the humidifier in very cold conditions can easily lead to moisture build up in the walls when the outside dew point is to low and moisture condenses before it fully leaves the house. I have a Humdity managment app that adjusts my small room humidifiers based on outdoor temp and humidity.
The humidifier is an Aprilaire 800 steam humidifier with an 850 fan pak. The humidity migrates through the whole house, as long as doors are left open.
I recently looked into the model OP just mentioned. They are non-ducted. Like portable room humidifiers, once blown out of the unit by the fan, it's just simple diffusion/convection etc. that moves water vapor through your home. They are rated for a larger living space than portable units, and they’re natural gas-powered with a permanent water hookup too.
But they come with digital humidistat control options that can even account for outdoor temperatures, I believe.
I just looked it up. I think i would leave that alone and let it run the way it is designed to. Remote sensors could get bad if you are trying to base what it should do at it's location based on another room.
If anything i would get the outside sensor and just try to encourage air circulation to help it work. Perhaps just having your AC Fan run additional to help circulate air may be a good idea
Thank you for all the suggestions. My hvac buddy connected it to the honeywell prestige thermostat as it can control the humidifier and the furnace fan separately. It is wifi which means a separate app, which I was hoping to avoid. I will keep looking for a zwave solution.
Thanks again.
yes that is the therm i have (presige iaq) but in addition, if have the honeywell steam humidifier.. it also supports sensors in the ducts to determine if there are issues.. you will need a redlnk box that connects your internet to that therm.. and there is the honeywell ported device handler i use for this.. it is a bit flakey and sometimes times out if you try to query via their api too often.. i have it set to every 30 minutes.. the redlink can support more than one therm in your house. i have another connected to it upstairs..
i recently modified the honeywell port to report on whether the steam humidifier is on.. it is a bit kludgey as their api doesn't report directly, my workaround was to determine if the fan was set to auto and on, but the the heat was not on and the humidifier is enable, assume it is humidifying.. This obviously missing the humidification when the heat is also on, but in that case the system reports heat instead of humidifying anyway..
ie
this is a good solution as in my opinion humidifier are not very usefull unless you can run the fan at the same time.
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