Spenceteon

Did I mention that I have to keep querying the SH wired thermostat to keep the humidity and temperature data up-to-date in my programs and variables? Does anyone have that problem as well? I set up a timed query and have each of my variable-setting programs query it as well. I noticed that it hadn't updated in two days earlier today, so added the queries. What would you say was optimal? I have the timer set for an odd number (83 seconds), and the others run when the set switch is changed.

Lots of good thought going into this! My dehumidifier installation in on the Texas Gulf Coast, and I think we're at 30º latitude... I seldom see humidities below 40% inside or outside unless something really strange happens with the weather. The humidifier is actually for an indoor walk-in cigar humidor at a business in Houston. The occasional foggy mornings that are right about room temperature outside bring in lots of humidity, and there are no A/C calls to bring it down. This is especially true at those times when people also are taking showers. In general, I don't care all that much about the precise humidity, and since I'm going by the LED's on a dimmer switch, I don't really have that precise of an insight on the actual humidity unless I look at the thermostat, but since I was writing the programming, I just copied and changed as I went and incorporated the entire comfort range in 1% increments since it's available from the dimmer. My dehumidifier isn't tremendously oversized, and it will take a long time to bring the humidity back into range when it is called, so I'm not worried about driving it batty. I'm sure that before it gets the humidity down, the A/C will be called to keep the temperature in check, and the humidity will drop anyway. I still think we deserve to tune it so that we don't get chapped lips/hands, but don't grow mold in the showers either, nor should we feel sticky or overly warm at a certain temperature just because of the heat index. We will also be able to 'kick it down' if we do have showers going or are boiling something in the kitchen or mopping or whatever adds humidity to the house - just so we can stay 'ahead' of the gain in humidity. It's purely for comfort. I've never seen excessive humidity or dryness in this house since we've lived here except during Harvey, but we've previously manipulated it with the cooling system as much as possible before installing the dehumidifier last week. In fact, I have a scene that turns on the A/C, drops the set temperature, and turns the fan to "always on" when you press one of the 8-way buttons in the master bath. If I'm going to take a shower (and my wife is putting on makeup), you just press the button and the house cools and removes excess humidity. I still have to figure out how to reverse that progress with the programming.

That totally works for my second use case. For the first use case, I was actually joking about the 45-55% thing - there will really be a dimmer to set the integer variable that I'll be comparing to the thermostat RH% to determine whether to turn the dehumidifier on. I'm well on my way in the programming to set the desired RH% variable vs the dimmer status. The reading will be reversed (off at status=off, 60% on the low end of the scale and 40% at the high end) and in 5% (out of 100%) increments that relate to the 1% steps between 40% and 60% RH. Then I need to decide if the Humidity status is greater than the set point variable.

Great! I see that now, thanks! Does this mean that I'll need a program for each possible "Case" in the range of my set-point variable? I'll have 40, 41, 42...60% as possible set-points. There's no "CASE" function, so I'd check whether the switch is off and just turn the ioLink relay off, then check whether variable was 40 and the status was > 40% (Humidity) and turn on, else off, and so on until I'd covered all the possibilities? I'm starting to think that MY comfort level is more like 45% to 55% LOL.

Two other things: 1. The thermostat in question is a device #29. 2. My thought for external selection of the humidity set point (besides going to my eK-ISY app or Insteon app) would be through a 2477D Switchlinc Dimmer. I would run a calculation on the internal integer variable when the set point was selected on the dimmer so that the led indicator would make the full range of motion, but only move the set point in a smaller "Comfort Zone" range from 60% to 40% or off. I can probably get that part, but reading the current humidity from the thermostat so I can make the comparison is really my problem. If this all works, then I'll have the light pipes for the 2477D LED indicator set up in a red-white-blue bar graph.

Hi stusviews, thanks for asking! I have the #2441TH. Not sure if there's a version, but I bought it in either late 2013 or early 2014. I misspoke when I said that the variable is only internal - what I meant that neither the humidity nor the current temp. value appears as a status option for the "Thermostat - Heat Control," "- Cool Control" or "- Main" in a Program Condition Statement or in a scene. For instance, how would I turn on all of my ceiling fans when the room temperature increased to 75 according to the thermostat, and I wanted the occupants to feel cooler without turning on the air conditioner? Where do I read the current temperature or humidity according to the thermostat? In my two use cases, I'd like to turn on my whole home dehumidifier and set the HVAC "Fan Setting" to "ON" whenever the humidity at the thermostat read above 55%, and turn it back off then the humidity returned to 50% or below and return the HVAC fan to either auto or whatever it's previous state was before the dehumidify call. The other use case would turn on a humidifier when the humidity dropped below 38% and turn it back off when the humidity increased to 40% or more. (the humidifier is in a different building than the dehumidifier, so don't worry about them interacting)

Not so much a reply to this thread, but maybe a new question: How do I establish a humidity set point (maybe a variable) and a initial HVAC fan state variable and call the HVAC fan and Dehumidifier (on an IO Linc) whenever the humidity exceeds the set point? Then have the fan resume it's initial state? I also have a button in the master bath to call the fan and drop the HVAC by 1 degree when pressed, then go back to auto when pressed again - how do I make it smarter and set variables for the initial fan state and temperature so that it will go back to the original settings with some intelligence? I was thinking of having a dimmer switch near the thermostat to raise or lower the humidity set point if needed, but I understand that the variable is only internal (so far as I know).