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Using Nest Thermostat w/a whole house humidifier

frustratednest1
Community Member

I have had a Nest thermostat installed for a while with no issues.  I recently purchased an Aprilaire humidifier.  I'm trying to get the Nest to control the humidifier without any luck.

Background info:

Heating/Cooling system is forced hot air.  There is a common wire.

The humidifier is an Aprilaire 600M; it is controlled by applying 24vac when humidification is needed.

 

After buying the device I wondered whether or not the Nest could control the humidifier rather than installing the standard humidistat that comes with the device.  Well I found all sorts of indications that YES a Nest can control a humidifier using the * terminal (that was previously unused in my installation).  So I went ahead and ran a wire to the * terminal for the Nest. 

My first clue that something wasn't right is after connecting the new wire to the * terminal and reconnecting the Nest, nothing happened.  This is contrary to what I thought would happen based on some googling.  It is very frustrating that the only way you can reconfigure the Nest is by performing a factory reset (at least this is what I read on google's help pages).  So I did a factory reset.  Upon walking through the re-install, when I pick the wire configuration I had previously but add a 'HUM' wire to the setup choices, the Home app is telling me my Nest is not compatible with my system.  When I remove the HUM wire it says it is compatible and works fine (but obviously does not control the humidifier).

I am having an impossible time getting an answer about this from the google help pages.  Everything I've read has said that it should control it but I realize there are a lot of different Nest thermostat models.  Mine is a Model: Thermostat-1.4; the Software version: 1.1-9

Can this thermostat control a humidifier?  If so, how, and if not, which Nest can?

 

Thanks

1 Recommended Answer

hmm.  Well aside from not being interesting, that doesn't address my question at all.

I did some more research and what I learned is that the Nest Thermostat CANNOT control a humidifier.  However, the Nest LEARNING Thermostat CAN.  The extremely frustrating part is that very often the Nest LEARNING Thermostat (which is a totally different device than the Nest Thermostat) is often simply referred to as the Nest Thermostat, including on Google 'help' pages for the LEARNING thermostat.  So when googling for help, you are lead down a rabbit hole.  Hopefully this bit of information helps another frustrated Nest customer.

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9 REPLIES 9

Ashepherdson
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert

Honestly I use the Aprileaire 800 whole home humidifier, and use the standard humidistat that came with it to avoid any issues, works perfectly.  

hmm.  Well aside from not being interesting, that doesn't address my question at all.

I did some more research and what I learned is that the Nest Thermostat CANNOT control a humidifier.  However, the Nest LEARNING Thermostat CAN.  The extremely frustrating part is that very often the Nest LEARNING Thermostat (which is a totally different device than the Nest Thermostat) is often simply referred to as the Nest Thermostat, including on Google 'help' pages for the LEARNING thermostat.  So when googling for help, you are lead down a rabbit hole.  Hopefully this bit of information helps another frustrated Nest customer.

thanks for posting, i just did the same thing, hooked all the wires up and then went to add it in the app and was like why is the setting not here all the help files say this is possible (saying nest when they mean nest learning), kind of bs. going to look at open source software now as it looks like the hardware should be able to handle this

After reading everything, including the google help pages, I ordered the NON learning, and spent $1000 for a contractor to come install the humidifier and the Nest.  Could not get it to work.

There's no excuse for this.  Why not differentiate the two products?

I know I might be asking you to repeat yourself here, but did the Learning thermostat work with the Aprilaire 600M? It sounded like it "could," but is it actively working for you? Both reporting humidity on the Nest and also letting you set humidity parameters? I think I can drop my Aprilaire HUM wire to the * connector, but after that is it just a black box that sometimes uses the humidifier? 

tkb361
Community Member

I have the same problem with mine.  The humidifier will come on with the heat and will also turn on the fan thru the setting of humidify on the nest app BUT it won't engage the water flow.

are you using a Nest Thermostat or are you using a Nest Learning Thermostat?

Ted
Community Member

I have a Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen) and my Aprilaire humidistat just broke. While searching for a new one online, I realized that I could potentially hook up the humidifier to the Nest and eliminate the need for a separate humidistat. But the humidistat is all the way in the basement, so I would imagine the first thing I need to do is run wiring up to where the Nest is, correct? Might not be worth it for me to do that...

ocshawn
Community Member

check if you already have an extra wire running to your thermostat, most of the time the installer just leaves extra wires in the wall for this exact reason