Changing old manual dial humidifier setting to something smarter?

Devices & Integrations
21

What solution did you end up with? I have a furnace mounted drip humidifier thti’d like to adjust the % of humidity in the whole house automatically as our temps outside can swing 30c in a day and the windows build condensation from that. You’d think someone would have made a smart controller by now.

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22

I would love to hear what others have done too…I’ve been wanting to do this for years and I finally have most of the pieces available…just need to figure out how to control the humidistat.

23

Why not have it wide open and put some type of smart switch or relay on the power and then a humidity sensor to control on/off…

I do not have a humidifier hooked to my furnaces but I do have 3 humidifiers that I control with Smart Plugs which work out great.

I use webCoRE for my rules.

24

Thanks for your response. It seems like it should be so easy, but I got a little turned around when I looked at all the options for the switches/relays. Do you have a recommendation?

25

Depends on what you have. I have regular plug in humidifies and I use Iris Plugs and Peanut Plugs for on/off. I love the Iris Plugs because they tell me how much power I am using. Surprisingly, the humidifiers are pulling around 300 watts when running.

As far as humidity sensors, I would recommend the Zooz 4-in-1s sold by @TheSmartestHouse . They are pretty slick and the newer version’s batteries last longer and the motion sensors are faster.

I also use the super cheap Xaomi Temp/Humidity Sensors (the round ones) but they can be tough to pair and sometimes fall off the network…

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26

Here is my plan.

Sensors:

Connection:
The Nutone relay will be in a new plastic gangbox drawing 120VAC from a nearby always hot plug. Two strand bell wire will go from the furnace Humidifier 24VAC power tap, through the Nutone relay, then to the solenoid for the humidifier. This allows the the Nutone relay to replace to rotary control.

Logic:
I will mimic the knob settings in WebCore based on temperature ranges. If I get creative, maybe I’ll create an equation instead. I will compare the Centralite humidity level to the the desired amount based on the outside temperature. If humidity is too low, I will turn on the relay. If too high, I will turn it off. As I learn with the system, I will adjust the target levels to get the results I want. As long as the Centralite unit is consistent, it can be tuned in.

In theory, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

27

Did you ever get this up and running? If so, would you mind taking a few pictures of your setup, or perhaps a diagram for how you wired the contact relay?

28

You can find it here: Smart Furnace Humidifier Control. I have tweaked the Webcore to work a bit better and killed the notifications as I now know that it works.

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29

thanks for the link a lot. i shall start learning how it works myself too. may i ask questions if would have some? thanks

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