Help choosing relay for circ pump

[zeek]

Hi guys! I have set up my outdoor wood boiler (OWB) to dry my clothes, yes you can do it. I have a Hardy H2, one Taco 008 pump. I have a line that is "teed" from the incoming supply from the OWB, I basically made a "scoop tee" with ball valve that is slightly closed, this creates a small pressure differential (maybe flow is a better term?) that causes some of the 180 degree water to be diverted into my 3/4 pex that goes to the car evaporator/blower fan assembly that is from a Mercury Capri and mounted on the wall behind the dryer. I have a 4; duct that feeds in to the dryer.

What I need is a relay so that when I turn on the dryer the circ pump turns on and the blower turns on. But I also need to be certain that if their is a call for heat AND the dryer has already turned on the circ pump that there will be no problems. I have a honeywell DPDT in the OWB and a relay (don't know what type) in the furnace in the house that controls the blower.

Anybody have any ideas what relay would work?

If you want I can post pics of the whole setup, just ask.

Thanks
Zeek

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Hi guys! I have set up my outdoor wood boiler (OWB) to dry my clothes, yes you can do it. I have a Hardy H2, one Taco 008 pump. I have a line that is "teed" from the incoming supply from the OWB, I basically made a "scoop tee" with ball valve that is slightly closed, this creates a small pressure differential (maybe flow is a better term?) that causes some of the 180 degree water to be diverted into my 3/4 pex that goes to the car evaporator/blower fan assembly that is from a Mercury Capri and mounted on the wall behind the dryer. I have a 4; duct that feeds in to the dryer.

What I need is a relay so that when I turn on the dryer the circ pump turns on and the blower turns on.


But I also need to be certain that if there is a call for heat AND the dryer has already turned on the circ pump that there will be no problems.


I have a honeywell DPDT in the OWB and a relay (don't know what type) in the furnace in the house that controls the blower.

Anybody have any ideas what relay would work?

If you want I can post pics of the whole setup, just ask.

Thanks
Zeek

I don't have an OWB, but I like to think about and play with this stuff. I've also thought of helping a friend set up his dryer this way.

Here's what I understand you're asking for:

You want your pump and fan to turn on when you turn the dryer on. What problems are you thinking of? A call for heat in the house?

A pic might help out.

 

[zeek]

Does this help?

I know very little about relays, but I know enough to know I need one, or two. Right now I have not bought any additional relays. For the time being I was just going to use a single pole switch to turn the circ pump on at the dryer and simply plug in the battery charger that is temporarily supplying 12 Volts DC to the blower. Pretty simple for now, I have done all that successfully, without turning on the blower fan in the furnace, BUT in order to do that I had to disconnect a wire on the relay in the furnace, which renders the blower useless because when there is a call for heat the blower will not come on.

Maybe this will help: when there is a call for heat two things happen, the circ pump turns on and the blower turns on, but in order to have JUST the circ pump on I had to disconnect one wire and that wire is energized when the circ pump turns on via a relay at the OWB. But when I put that wire back in its place and switch the circ pump on at the dryer (manually for now with a single pole switch) the blower turns on.

I know I have to move the blower wire, so that when the circ pump is on because I am drying clothes, the blower in the furnace is off. But I also have to be sure that when there is a call for heat the circ pump and blower turn on.

So my question is do I need a different relay in the OWB and/or in the furnace, one that can handle two different, separate inputs. So when current goes here turn on circ pump only. When current goes there turn on blower and circ pump.

Does tha help?

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

I know very little about relays, but I know enough to know I need one, or two. Right now I have not bought any additional relays. For the time being I was just going to use a single pole switch to turn the circ pump on at the dryer and simply plug in the battery charger that is temporarily supplying 12 Volts DC to the blower. Pretty simple for now, I have done all that successfully, without turning on the blower fan in the furnace, BUT in order to do that I had to disconnect a wire on the relay in the furnace, which renders the blower useless because when there is a call for heat the blower will not come on.

Maybe this will help: when there is a call for heat two things happen, the circ pump turns on and the blower turns on, but in order to have JUST the circ pump on I had to disconnect one wire and that wire is energized when the circ pump turns on via a relay at the OWB. But when I put that wire back in its place and switch the circ pump on at the dryer (manually for now with a single pole switch) the blower turns on.

I know I have to move the blower wire, so that when the circ pump is on because I am drying clothes, the blower in the furnace is off. But I also have to be sure that when there is a call for heat the circ pump and blower turn on.

So my question is do I need a different relay in the OWB and/or in the furnace, one that can handle two different, separate inputs. So when current goes here turn on circ pump only. When current goes there turn on blower and circ pump.

Does that help?

Yes...I think I'm understanding a bit more of what you're looking for.

Currently, the way your system is set up, when the house calls for heat, the pump starts along with the blower for the heat exchanger that heats the house. Right?

You want to be able to turn the pump on without turning the house blower on. But, if the house does call for heat, you want the house blower to be able to come on. Right?

The way you have it now is. You're running the pump but have the house blower disconnected so you're not blowing heat into your house. Right?

I'm going out and cut a load of wood. Let's see what the brain thinks up! LoL! This shouldn't be too hard.

A pic or two never hurt.

Edit: You're controls are running on 12vdc?

 

[zeek]

yep

Exactly!!!!!

yes...i think i'm understanding a bit more of what you're looking for.

Currently, the way your system is set up, when the house calls for heat, the pump starts along with the blower for the heat exchanger that heats the house. Right?

You want to be able to turn the pump on without turning the house blower on. But, if the house does call for heat, you want the house blower to be able to come on. Right?

The way you have it now is. You're running the pump but have the house blower disconnected so you're not blowing heat into your house. Right?

I'm going out and cut a load of wood. Let's see what the brain thinks up! Lol! This shouldn't be too hard.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

What voltage is your system running? 12vdc?

Heating house: Pump and blower ON
Drying cloths: Pump and dryer fan ON

Two NO relays. (normally open) DP (Double poll)

One is triggered by the dryer circuit. (powering the coil) (this one will probably need a 110v coil if you're using the dryer voltage to turn it on.) I'd probably just use the power from the motor. When ever the motor is running the relay will be on.

One set of contacts powers the pump and the another powers the 12vdc fan

The second one is triggered by the house thermostat (powering the coil) (probably 12 or 24 volt coil) You probably should be able to get the power from your existing control power on your furnace.

One set of contacts powers the pump and the another powers the blower.

Now, selecting the relays. I'd probably just oversize them and be done with it. The blower and the pump probably don't pull that many amps. See if you can find a tag on them what amperage they use just to make sure.

Make sense?

There are guys that are much more qualified to do this. I hope they chime in.

PM sent.

 

[zeek]

Thanks

Thanks that makes sense and I am running 24 volt for the furnace, but can use 110 for dryer.
Got the PM
Thanks Again

 

[Stihl310]

I've got a bunch of plc experience, super easy to do what you want going that route... Little expensive though.... Anyways I'm going to think through this and see if I can't come up with something for you... I'll get back....

 

[Stihl310]

By the way a list of voltages on each device would be helpful... Signal voltage from furnace and dryer as well.

What might throw a curve into the situation is if you're running multiple different voltages, you would need different relays for each source in order to isolate them... If everything was just running off 24v things could be very simple.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

What voltage is your system running? 12vdc?

Heating house: Pump and blower ON
Drying cloths: Pump and dryer fan ON

Two NO relays. (normally open) DP (Double poll)

One is triggered by the dryer circuit. (powering the coil) (this one will probably need a 110v coil if you're using the dryer voltage to turn it on.) I'd probably just use the power from the motor. When ever the motor is running the relay will be on.

One set of contacts powers the pump and the another powers the 12vdc fan

The second one is triggered by the house thermostat (powering the coil) (probably 12 or 24 volt coil) You probably should be able to get the power from your existing control power on your furnace.

One set of contacts powers the pump and the another powers the blower.

Now, selecting the relays. I'd probably just oversize them and be done with it. The blower and the pump probably don't pull that many amps. See if you can find a tag on them what amperage they use just to make sure.

Make sense?

There are guys that are much more qualified to do this. I hope they chime in.

PM sent.

I've got a bunch of plc experience, super easy to do what you want going that route... Little expensive though.... Anyways I'm going to think through this and see if I can't come up with something for you... I'll get back....

By the way a list of voltages on each device would be helpful... Signal voltage from furnace and dryer as well.

What might throw a curve into the situation is if you're running multiple different voltages, you would need different relays for each source in order to isolate them... If everything was just running off 24v things could be very simple.

Stihl310

What would you change from my above post? From your response, it doesn't even seem like you saw my post.

 

[Stihl310]

Correct me if I'm wrong but you would not want two contacts coming in to run one device(pump) in the event that the dryer and furnace both call for the pump to kick on at once. You would want a relay coming off of the furnace to run the pump, you'd jump that NO. Leg over to another NC contact on a 2nd relay thats coil would operate off of dryer signal. If dryer called for the pump it would pull the NC open, then close the NO on that relay... You would jump the power and common from relay 1 to this relay and this make connection to your pump, but only ever have one voltage source being put into your pump... Seems messy, but I don't like sending two voltages to a device, sometimes weird things can happen.

 

[Stihl310]

On 2nd thought let me sketch out some ideas this morning that may work... What you said might just work, sorry I didn't fully understand what you were initially saying.

 

[zeek]

Allen Bradley PLC?

I see you are in Ohio, whereabouts? Also, I get what you are saying about different voltages, but if I have to I can just pull 24 volt the dryer area from the furnace transformer and control the circ pump with a relay and have the wife flip a single pole for the 12 volt dc car blower at the dryer. I was out of town, sorry took so long to respond. My friend is helping me, as he did his system and has used an an Allen Bradeye PLC unit for his stuff and he has the software (he used to fix flight simulators for US Airways), but I do have the cash for a PLC. He said I could use relays no problem, but I don't want to just have him do it, I want to learn it and understand it, which is why I posted. And he can take forever to get things done, but genius nonetheless. Looking forward to that sketch. By the way, his is setup so that when the dryer sends a call for heat to the boiler it cranks up the heat of water to 210 degrees (by turning the draft control blower on) and when the load has 5 minutes left the circ pump shuts off, and the heater element in the dryer turns on so that the clothes don't wrinkle! Sweet huh?
Thanks!!

 

[beerman6]

wire the pump so it's on all of the time?


I know what you want and I know I could do it,but I'm a hands on kinda guy and I would have to be looking at everything to put it together...I am a horrible teacher.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Most 240 v. electric dryers use 120V. for controls.
You can go old-school w/ a Honeywell RA-832A relay, or use a furnace fan center, or cabbage an ole relay off a heat pump system