Great video! Just a nitpick (in case someone is interested in how the current flows): C wire does not provide 24v but acts as a neutral to complete the circuit (both for ecobee and humidifier)
Is there any neutral connection exist at nest panel or we have to go connect to furnace C regardless. Just thinking if humidifier can be connected without opening furnace panel
Thanks for making this video. I had just bought a new ecobee thermostat that would allow me to control the humidifier, and I was really getting frustrated when I removed the two wires from my old humidistat and placed them on Acc+ and Acc - only to discover that didn’t work. After watching your video it got me thinking that with the old system I had the furnace would control the humidifier if the analog humidistat was electrically closed. That not what I wanted anymore. Now the thermostat provides power to the water shutoff solenoid when the thermostat decides the humidity is low enough to justify turning it on. The C-terminal on the furnace board simply provides the ground (actually it’s the neutral wire) to complete the circuit. It wasn’t too difficult to change the connections around and now when I run the test it works. Thank you for making the simple wiring schematic. When I saw that it started to make sense, and now it works perfectly. Ecobee could do a better job explaining what the Acc + and Acc - Terminals do and how specifically they work. I couldn’t find that information anywhere. I couldn’t figure out if those two terminals were just “dry contacts” or if they were a positive and a neutral or what. Now I know that the Acc+ is a source of power that is energized when the thermostat wants to turn the humidifier on. Your video was the only one I found that explained how this works. Very helpful!
More on my comments below. The Furnace guy was here doing a follow-up inspection and found that the installer did not hook up the Humidifier correctly. He was not really familiar with the Ecobee himself, so I found your Video to help him, anyway, your video was helpful! Thanks, BTW you taught yourself well!!
Thanks man. I followed your instructions and converted the humidistat install to ecobee3 without issue. Feels more appropriate being able to use the smart thermostat I purchased to control humidity vs. continuing to use manual in spite of it. Furnace guys installed the system and didn't hook it up to the ecobee, which was a bit lame of them.
Aprilair 700m Install with Ecobee. I installed with three parts, the humidifier, the included 24v transformer, and the thermostat. Run them in a series using both the ACC+ and the ACC-, this allows the Ecobee to act as a switch and a digital Humidistat. 1 wire from transformer to Humidifier, 1 wire from transformer to the thermostat (doesn't matter which one), then the other wire from the Ecobee to the Humidifier. Works great and nobody has documented this. You're welcome Ecobee.
Life saver!! I was just about to call someone and pay like 100$ just to wire it... I did this and reset my ecobee and voila! Aprilaire 400m works great now
Great video, very helpful! Just one comment, you can eliminate your C wire adapter - just use that spare blue wire you have and connected it to the C (common 24V) on your furnace and ecobee terminal.
@@infusionset i suspect op felt better to use PEK because it came with the ecobee - i would understand if it provides isolation filtering but haven’t opened a PEK to see if there are any flirting components
I installed using EcoBee 3 & AprilAire 600 today... It worked great Thanks... One note to add My EcoBee 3 didn't show the ACC+ and ACC- connections I had to add them in once I had the brown wire connected in.
Great information for ecobee 3 - For reliability reasons get rid of the add on common converter and reconnect the blue to the common terminal. It's not needed, a blue wire is more reliable than a circuit board any day. From Icon HVAC Service North Aurora IL
I’ve got a teaser for you. I’ve got my ecobee c wire (blue) wired in with my central air wire and the blue wire to the board transformer. Board doesn’t have a c terminal. Goodman 92. Anyway, I had my April aire auto wired up with the 24v transformer. Eliminate the humidistat totally because it wasn’t working the solenoid, so I thought I’d try the ecobee instead of the humidistat. I wired it just Ike this gentleman in the video. One wire from solenoid to acc+ and the other to my c “wires” and it will not activate the solenoid. If I hook the solenoid wires up directly to the 24v stand alone transformer the solenoid opens. That may not make sense but typing on this window with a phone I lose my train of thought. Lol
Great video! Quick question, does it matter which yellow wire you connect to? Or are both yellow wires the same as in can you connect for example the red wire to either yellow wires run that to the "C" on furnace than run the other wire from the other yellow to thermostat?
Thanks for the video.... How does the ecobee calculate the relative humidity, since it requires the outside temperature? Is there a 'outside temp sensor'? Or does it use a temp provided via an app? I'm looking to have the ecobee automatically vary the relative humidity.... Or is this the wrong controller? Thanks
Great video, I just picked up the automatic version of the aprilaire 600 for the same price as the manual. Few questions, you are no longer using the 24v transformer correct? I assume the ecobee measures the humidity now?
@@self-taught52 thanks, one other thing. I currently have setup my Ecobee with 5 wires already, RC,G,Y1,C,W1 so in theory I don't have another wire available to use for the ACC+. Can't remember if I need the C wire for my Ecobee? If not I can use that.
What about humidifier with a fan? Mine has 2 yellow wires from the solenoid going into my humidifier. The humidifier has a fan which is powered by a 120V wall socket plug. There are 2 wires coming out of the humidifier (2 brown wires) that were hooked to the 24V +/- on the old thermostat.
Will it control furnace blower ON/OFF? My humidifier is mist kind and requires heat and blower working together with humidifier. My humidifier also requires furnace blower to work a couple minutes after humidifier switches off automatically to distribute all the moisture collected in the duct. If blower stops the same time with mist humidifier moisture still will sit inside plenum and makes it rust. Will this Humidifier Control have this setting so furnace blower work few minutes after humidifier switched off?
Ecobee's original intent/requirement is to manage the furnace/AC and blower associated with it. Humidifier management is additional feature. Based on how you have configured your setting for fan (either to be always on or auto with a minimum mins per hour), the blower (fan) will function. Also please note, traditionally the blower never stops immediately (always runs a little longer after the heating is cut by the control after the desired temp is reached). Hope this helps.
thanks for sharing, is 28% humidity not too low for the house? Can't that cause damage due to windows shrinking or hardwood if you have them in the house?
Thanks for the question. You are right, extremes in either side of the scale are harmful to the house. The 28% (in this context) is based on how efficient the windows are. As mentioned, my windows are older and I set it to 3 based on that and on what humidity level the windows get condensation on a colder day. The smart algo just pumps water when the indoor humidity drops down to 28 or lower keeping us comfortable. Again every setting should be based on considering your home's efficiency. Hope this helps.
My yellow wires are conntes to the inside of my 700m humidifier and only 2 brown wires are available. Do i have to cut the yellow wires and connect the ecobee4 to those? Or are the brown wires the same? Thanks
As I mentioned there will be only 2 wires for a solenoid to flip either way. You should be fine omitting the humidistat totally out of the equation and use the wires from solenoid and control it through ecobee
Question...I have the Ecobee controlling the solenoid, but how do I get the fan in the humidifier to run? The 2 yellow wires of the solenoid are connected as described here, but I have 2 brown wires from the fan not connected.
From under main menu system->fan you can set the fan to either auto or few mins/hr. The brown wire from/to solenoid is not to control fan. Originally that wire guess to the standalone humidistat (old).
I love these thermostats. It's so much better to measure humidity from only one point in the home instead of letting the humidistat measure humidity from the return duct which will pull air from all points of the home. Why monitor the whole house when I can monitor just the one room🤪
Does the humidifier only run when there is a call for heat? Or does it operate just the blower fan when it senses the humidity levels are too low? I hear my house with a wood stove, but have an Aprilaire 800 steam humidifier that requires the blower fan to be on but I don’t ever need the heat to be on, I just need automatic humidity control.
It's triggered when ecobee's algorithm decides to switch on. Mostly on the heat calls. However, sometimes when it's really dry it might be called on while the fan is used for heat circulation
Thank you for the great demonstration! My Humidifier probably had a outside house a wall sensor. I installed the new ecobee yesterday and got my furnace running however, I have yet to figure out wiring of my Aprilaire 500 humidifier which has 2 yellow wires coming out; as to which terminal of solenoid should connect the C terminal on the circuit board of the furnace and which terminal to extend to make get in the ACC+ slot of my ecobee to complete the circuit? Also want to know if I need any outside sensor anymore ? Thank you.
Solenoid values work like binary switches. So, no need to worry which one needs to go to C and which one to ACC+. Just make sure you connect one those to C and ACC+ for it to get power and to be controlled by ecobee. Good luck.
You should probably have left the humidifier alone... an outside wall sensor will work much better than the Ecobee, and the temperature reading will always be spot on for your location. Whereas the Ecobee is fetching an approximate temperature reading from the internet.
It’s a good tutorial video but I couldn’t use it for ecobee 3 . I have 4 wires connected to Rc, C, W1 and Pek . Not sure which one I can use for humidifier. Also I don’t see humidifier section in ecobee setting
The PEK sits been the ecobee and your furnace board. That should free up at least a wire which you can use for ACC+ (this controls the humidifier). Hope this helps.
The Ecobee 3 cannot control a humidifier. You have to step up to a higher model ecobee. I'll be getting the Ecobee Enhanced Smart Themostat bc I want humidifier control without Alexa built in.
@@self-taught52 no worries, I appreciate your help. One last question, will this same how to video apply to the Aprilaire 700? I don’t see why not, it also has the same 2 wire solenoid wires.
It should. Note, the ecobee controls the valve to let the water in our not. As long is a by pass humidifier, the airflow is the one that's doing the trick. How this helps.
I have C wire but, it was not used in my old thermostat. It was terminated at the furnace board itself. So, to be safe without knowing details behind the wall, I chose to be safe and used PEK.
I may be wrong but, to my understanding the humidifier is triggered when heat or a/c (when working as dehumidifier) is called for. Not sure if it can triggered on fan call using this setup.
I don't have a spare or unused wire to hook up to the humidifier to thermostat please help. My humidifier is already connected to the manual control came along with the humidifier.
Thanks for sharing! What kind of humidifier are you running? I have an aprilaire 400 and there are two water level sensor wires which connect to the valve wiring. Is yours the same?
Two wires the valve takes one controls the toggle based on the instruction from thermostat/humidistat and the other provides 24v charge for it to function. It doesn't matter which wire you use for the water sensor (thermostat/humidistat). I have carrier (similar to Aprilaire). The valve is independent of the by pass humidifier.
@@self-taught52 I have a different style wiring panel and it seems I will need to run a wire to connect to the ACC+. Once I receive my Ecobee4 I will look to install it in addition to hooking it up to the Humidifier. I am sure it will be a bit difficult to run an extra wire. But I will get it done and let you know how it goes! Thanks for the video! Cheers
Hi, thank you for the great explanation! Just a couple questions. I have a Honeywell humidifier and a sort of thermostat for the humidifier all located in the furnace closer. Are you bypassing the controller entirely and replacing it with the Ecobee? Second, I have six wires connected to my Ecobee thermostat. Could one of them actually be for the humidifier controller and it’s just not connected to anything? Sorry for my ignorance but I’m a fast learner lol. Thanks in advance!
I have similar setup (but may not be exact). I just disconnected the humidifier old controller (that was controlling solenoid valve) and connected that to the ecobee terminal. You need to see what those 6 wires are used for based on the documentation of your furnace/old thermostat.
I have the same wiring configuration with the only difference is that the one wire from the solenoid going into the furnace is connected to the 24 V HUM not the C . Does that matter? What is the difference?
C or 24v step down transformer is to provide power to the Solenoid valve. You only use the other wire from the valve switch to toggle on or off. That other wire is connected to ecobee for this purpose. HTHs.
I believe the 24 V HUM terminal is used to complete the circuit only when heat is being called for... but Ecobee is smart enough to know this itself, so I believe the HUM terminals can be skipped.
ACC- as I earlier mentioned in the video, used for multiple appliances like de-humidifier. If it helps, I had an etc wire and left it open and kept the ACC- also untouched.
Self-Taught you are a true gentleman for answer my questions and for that reason I just subscribed. Hope you go viral my friend! Oh yes almost forgot, you also got a thumbs up of course!
Ecobees are connected to internet. So they know what's that location's (read outside). Also I believe it has sensor (i might be wrong). Using these info, it'll regulate the indoor humidity.
You need to connect the humidifier to ecobee ONLY if you want it to be controlled by ecobee. You can always run humidifier independently and controlled by a separate humidistat.
Yes, it looks like redundant, right? But, you look my video again I would've classified my case as I don't have a C wire connected to the control board. So, safer and logical option was to use PEK. Hope it helps.
