Aprilaire 560 Humidifier / Insteon / Elk M1G

[brettahale]

My house has an old Aprilaire 560 with a dial on it. I'd like to automate it somehow. I have Insteon running with a 2441TH thermostat. I will probably be buying and ELK M1G and an ISY994i in the near future.
 
With that said, it might not be working properly. I'm still trying to trouble shoot. But, if it is working, is it possible to bypass the dial to get it working?
 
If it's not, any recommendations on whole house humidifiers that I can replace it with that are HA friendly?
 
Thanks in advance!
 
Brett

 

[Del91574]

You can automate almost anything however you're not going to get an off the shelf item to work with what you already have...or most units out there.
 
In your case, the easiest is to bypass the switch and use a solenoid to control the water...then you need to get a humidistat in the house to get the feedback to whatever control you're going to use. Simple I/O at that point...unless you are looking to do more scaling based on inside/outside temperature and RH.

 

[RAL]

I have the feeling that you want to automate the humidifier so that it will do a better job of maintaining the proper humidity level in relation to the outdoor temperature.
 
If that's the case, I think you would be better off with a humidifier that has its own outdoor temperature sensor.   Aprilaire makes models that have this feature, and that allows them to be pretty much standalone units in terms of automation.  I don't know many people who frequently change the humidity levels in their house when the humidifier is capable of maintaining a comfortable setting.  Setting the humidity level is pretty much a set and forget item.  So I don't see much benefit connecting it to an HA system.
 
In my experience, humidifiers are more trouble prone than other HVAC components.  Tying it into your home automation system will make things more complex and that much more difficult to trouble shoot when there is a problem.
 
Since you said your unit is old and not working, maybe this is the right time to get a new, more capable unit.

 

[signal15]

Get an Ecobee thermostat.  $250 on Amazon, it's network connected, shows the outside weather and forecast, learns your schedule like the Nest, has a cloud service that graphs everything and gives you monthly reports like Nest, controls a humidifier, controls a fresh air exchanger, controls heat exchangers, multiple stage cooling, multiple stage heating, etc.
 
I bought 2 of them for this house, and I like it better than my Nest.  
 
The only drawbacks:
- If you have 2 thermostats in the same house, the monthly reports don't take this into account.  I don't think Nest's do either.
- The touchscreen on the thermostat is resistive, not capacitive.  It looks fine, but dragging things on it and scrolling through menus makes me want to rip it off the wall and wing it across the room.  Luckily, once it's set up, you don't need to scroll for anything, it's just taps on buttons.
 
It integrates with my Vera, which also integrates with my Elk, so everything is tied together.

 

[brettahale]

@DELInstallations - Thanks, I am looking for relative humidity control but I appreciate the reply. 
 
signal15 I just bought an Insteon thermostat and our schedule is not very consistent so I'm not sure that's the best route. I'm hoping to tie the thermostat controls to the arming events in the alarms system. Work in progress though
 
@RAL I was trying to get the difference in the Aprilaire models and was wondering why I would even need HA. I think just because I was looking at the old dial, I thought I would have to tap into HA to control it. Anyway, I think a new unit is the way to go.
 
Thanks for the help!

 

[pete_c]

Here I have a similar Aprilaire humidifier.  There is the similiar dial on the HVAC unit with connections to the water solenoid and temperature outside.
 
The device is around 10 years old right now.  I am not sure how much more efficient newer devices are.  There probably has been some changes in the design a bit.  Here I just manually flip the damper thing, change the filter and turn it on in the winter with the heat going on.  Guessing other than changing the filter; the newer humidifiers might be similar or have added a bit more electronics. 
 
Over the years I've considered automating it and never had.  I am today using one Omnistat and do have combo temperature / humidity on all of the floors of the two story home.
 
Consistent temperature and humidity levels in the house have always been a sticky issue with the WAF.
 
In the winter here I try to keep the humidity levels around 35% or so. 
 
In the summer the humidifier is  off and I do automate a dehumidifier in the basement.
 
I leave the multspeed furnace fan on 24/7 and get OK temperature levels and humidity levels throughout the house. 
 
Recently we had a bit of a cold snap with temperatures lingering below zero and the furnace working a bit more; that said the humidity levels using the Aprilaire controller worked just fine keeping the humidity levels consistent in the house.