Possible "dimmer" for a fan??

[Jgdavis14]

I have a humidifier that I would like to control the fan at certain times of day due to the noise.   High at night and low (and quiet) during the day.  It is a 3 prong plug unit.   It is a 3 speed unit but I have to obviously change this manually.  

 

 Is there any way I can do this with my insteon/ISY system?  

[oberkc]

Check the load ratings for the various devices.  I think you will find that dimmers cannot be used for much more than incandescent lighting.  Some may now say useable with LED lighting.  Most inductive loads such as a dehumidifier cannot be used with a dimmer.

 

A relay device....well....that would be a different answer.  You could control your dehumidifier with a relay device.  Yes.

[Brian H]

I would also suggest you check the fans ratings.

It is most likely too large for a Fanlinc's ratings but worth a look.

[apostolakisl]

He said humidifier, not de-humidifier.  

 

There are lots of different kinds of humidifiers.  Most of the ones I am familiar with don't use much electricity, so load won't be an issue.  Without knowing exactly what humidifier you are dealing with it is hard to say.  But, in general, no, you can't use a dimmer on an AC motor, which is almost certainly what is running the fan on your humidifier.  You could look into the compatibility of the fanlinc, but I am doubtful.

[Brian H]

Now that I reread the original post. It was indicated a manual speed switch was used. So a Fanlinc was a poor thought on my part.

[Teken]

Now that I reread the original post. It was indicated a manual speed switch was used. So a Fanlinc was a poor thought on my part.

 

Assuming the load is with in the fan linc (which I doubt) it could work. But, you would need to confirm how the humidifier is wired to control the fans low, med, high.

 

Worse case scenario would be to use a micro on / off relay to turn on the speeds you wish. This of course cost much more money then the fanlinc but that is an alternate solution.

 

I did this with my three speed over head range exhaust fan.

[stusviews]

Specify the make and model of the humidifier.

[Jgdavis14]

Thanks for all the comments and thoughts.

 

Here is a shot of the tag on the humidifier.  It obviously is an old unit but works great!  Hard to even find parts for it.

[stusviews]

A FanLinc can certainly handle 150W. If a FanLinc doesn't fit, then Micro Module would work.

[oberkc]

clearly, based upon the tag, one would not want to connect it to a voltage other than 120V. Definitely not something to put on a dimmer.

[larryllix]

It is most likely a synchronous, shaded pole motor, similar to the one in most bathroom vents and old phonograph motors.

 

You can dim them all you want and they will stay the same speed as long as they can keep up. The harmonics from the dimmer may damage the motor and/or the low average voltage from the dimmer may make the current increase to the point of damaging the dimmer.

[oberkc]

And, never mind any of the sensors or electronics.

[Jgdavis14]

I'll look into the Fanlinc and micro module.   Thanks.

[apostolakisl]

AC motors RPM is based on the AC hz, not voltage.  A dimmer will effectively drop the voltage but makes no change to the hz.  So the motor keeps spinning at the same speed until the voltage is insufficient to push through the load at which point it will spin unpredictably or stop and possibly over heat and catch fire or burn up the windings.

 

The multi speed AC motors I know of work by having more than one takeoff of the power wires into the windings resulting in different magnetic configurations that change the speed.  

 

I am not really sure how fanlincs work, maybe someone else knows.  But they seem to somehow tap into the same built-in speeds of the fan without physically changing which wires are connected to what inside the motor.

 

Just recently some of the new ceiling fans have DC rectifiers and DC motors in them and are thus infinitely variable.  They are also more efficient.  But they cost more.  My HVAC unit runs on fans like that.  One of them burned out at 5.25 years (warranty 5 years) and the new fan motor was $800 (just the motor) (compared to about $125 for a similar AC one).  I bitched and they covered it under warranty. . . but you get the idea.  So I have to commend Carrier on covering it, but not on having it fail after 5.25 years.

[Brian H]

I would suspect the fan motor has multiple taps or different sized caps switched into the motor circuit. As the OP indicated a manual three speed setting.

[larryllix]

I would suspect the fan motor has multiple taps or different sized caps switched into the motor circuit. As the OP indicated a manual three speed setting.

I was thinking the same thing and that would mean a wired in fan controller should do the job...maybe. Ceiling fans usually just stick different caps in series with the fan motor to reduce voltage without chopping waveforms or causing heat in the components (pf=0) .

 

This would mean hacking into internal wiring of the humidifier though.