Exhaust fan hooked to a breakout box.

[Wheeler89]

Hey everyone,

Is it possible to hook up an exhaust fan in my sump room and have it connected so that the Apex will turn it on when it gets too hot.

I tried searching and have not found a thread that really helps me with this.


I have the Apex with an Apex breakout box and numerous EB8s. I will assume I will need another module for another temp probe.

I also read http://forum.neptunesystems.com/show...hlight=exhaust that RussM responded to, but I am rather ignorant when it comes to electrcal and could not understand what was said or if it would work for my situation.

Any help is appreciated

[RussM]

You cannot hook up anything to a breakout box except for dry contact switches, such as float switches. The fan would need to be powered and controlled by an EnergyBar outlet.

After you have added a PM1 or PM2 and the second temp probe, you'd just program the fan outlet with something like this:

Fallback ON
Set OFF
If Temp2 > 83.0 Then ON

What part specifically don't you understand in that other thread?

[Wheeler89]

Zdstrong said,

There is a cheaper alternative. You can hook up a I/O thermostat and humidistat. Set the thermostat to your temp ~75 and humidity accordingly. Then program outlet to activate fan, etc. when too hot open or too cold closed. You have to use defer in the coding otherwise your apex will click the vent fan on and off. I have an exhaust fan that I have for the sump room with a humidistat and thermostat conected to my Apex. Its a more simple setup, but its tried and trusted. Every other home in America has the Home Depots thermostats, so you know they work. The breakout box i/o is pretty cheap and offers so many possibilities. I have water sensors lining my stand, doorbells rigged to execute the various feed modes.


What is an I/O therostat etc etc?


I guess I should have asked what is the cheaper alternative to setting up an exhaust fan as opposed to just an exhaust fan.

It appears that there is a thermostat that can be used in conjunction with a breakout box, but I have no idea of where to find, how to hook up, or if it would actually work etc..

[aquamanic]

The breakout box connects to what are called 'dry contact' switches - basically just a switch that can break continuity. It's either OPEN or CLOSED.

Float switches, magnetic security window switches are two examples.

If you look in the CRM in the section on switches you'll find a link to a humidistat that has a dry contact switch inside it. You set your humidity setpoint and when that is reached the humidistat either opens or closes its switch. The breakout box sees this and tells the controller that its open or closed. Your controller program then turns an outlet on or off depending on what you want to do. That outlet would be what you have your ventilation fan plugged into.

You can do roughly the same thing with a Neptune temperature probe. It's not a switch per se but based on the temperature you turn an outlet on or off. Typically that's a heater or chiller but it could be a fan as well. Those temp probes work in water or air equally as well.

If you had a room thermometer that had dry contact output, you could do the same thing as with the humidistat.

[Wheeler89]

Thanks guys.