| Humidifier Control: Subject: RE: Honeywell's home heating
controls
You may want to look at the PC8900 Perfect Climate Comfort
Center. This thermostat provides both furnace and humidifier control. The
comfort center takes the outdoor temperature reading and calculates the
dew point to help prevent humidity from accumulating on the windows. If
you would like some information sent to you on this product, please send
us your mailing address. Could you pass the following question on to your
home heating people: I've got a Honeywell thermostat for my furnace as
well as a Honeywell control for my furnaces (add-on) humidifier. All home
humidifier controls are set to a relative humidity based on the outside
temp. Why can't I find a control that has an outside thermostat and sets
it itself?? Why can't I find one unit that is both humidifier and furnace
control...?? Thanks,
Art McEwen
ANSWER: Sounds like you found it Art. I haven't used that
piece of equipment so I can't comment on it. In the maritime Pacific Northwest
we don't have a lot of use for humidifiers although I do suggest to folks
that they add humidity to their home environment during the winter because
houses get too dry. I don't know how much money that equipment costs but
I could find out for anybody interested......... tom
Greetings;
I believe that April Air has a control that will adjust
with outside temperature. If you live in a location where the low winter
temperature doesn't vary much from average. Then you can set your humidistat
to about 40%. As long as you don't get any condensation on windows and
walls you are probably Ok. But keep an eye out for dew.
While on the subject of humidifiers. I have found the
best humidifier in the world bar none. Is the Humidifier 707. This unit
mounts on the return duct. It works by sucking up the water, chewing it
up into a fog and blowing it into the return duct. All the crap in the
water gets trapped in the filter and gets thrown away with the filter.
Or gets washed out if you have a washable filter. There is no media
pad to mess with and the average life expectancy is 20+ years. This type
of humidifier works great with heat pumps and with large demand. Because
they don't need hot air to work they will continue to dump moisture into
the house whenever the fan is running.
Scott Meenen
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This Question originally sent by the G&S Mechanical
heating question fill
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This Question relates to how the fan
works on a forced air furnace.
When the thermostat temp gets low enough for the heater to
come on, we
can hear the burner ignite, but the fan does not
come on. This unit is
also used for the A/C, so we know the blower works.
What could be the problem?
Answer by Scott Meenen N3SJH
If this if a newer furnace it uses an electronic
timer to start the fan, if this is an older unit then it probably uses
a thermostat in the plenum ( the heat exchanger) to start the fan.
Some furnaces have a combination of both.
This thermostat is usually combined with the high
limit that cuts off the burner in case of over heating. Some older furnaces
may have the thermostatic fan control replaced with or backed up by a timer.
If the fan works by placing the fan switch on the thermostat
in the fan on position (usually high speed) then you know that there is
power to the fan motor, however most furnaces have multi speed fans and
use the higher speeds for air-conditioning and the lower speeds for heating.
If the fan is belt driven then the fan only runs at one speed for heating
or cooling.
Good luck Scott.
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This furnace pilot question
was submitted on March 20th 2000
By Karen of Mt. Vernon Illinois.
My mobile home furnace won't stay lit. I had the pilot cleaned
Sept. 99. It
was working fine and it just went out. The flame
goes out when I release
the pilot knob. The flame acts like it may have
air in the line, but the
burners on my cooking stove are not affected.
Do you have any ideas by
what i've told you?
Please send advice if it's something I can
do or do I call a repairman.
Sincerely,
Karen Casteel
On most all standing pilot systems the pilot heats
a thermocouple (two dissimilar metals that generate electricity). This
electricity holds open the valve
that keeps the pilot burning. When the pilot goes
out the thermocouple
cools and shuts off the gas to the pilot and the
main valve.
If you have a "milli-volt system" then instead
of a thermocouple you have a
thermopile that generates about 1/2 a volt and
electrically operates the main valve as well as the pilot valve.
These thermocouples
do fail and will cause the valve not to hold in or they may not stay in.
They are also very cheap to replace. A thermopile is a little bit more
expensive and the way to tell if your system has one is that there will
not be a
24 volt transformer to open the gas valve and a
thermopile has wires and
lugs on the wires, a thermocouple looks like a
piece of capillary tubing
that has threads that screw into the gas valve.
If you need to replace your milli-volt gas valve
I recommend that you install a
conventional 24 volt gas valve that uses a transformer
and a conventional
thermocouple (standard 24 volt valves are less
expensive and easier to find), unless of course your system doesn't have
a 120 volt blower.
As for something that you as a home
owner can do is to make sure that
the thermocouple has not fallen out of the path
of the pilot.
If you are mechanically inclined you can easily
replace a thermocouple or
thermopile with a little more difficulty. But I
would seek professional help to replace a gas valve.
To
see images of gas valve systems click here
For
a list of all files go to the sitemap
Good luck. Scott N3SJH
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