In this project we will build a system to catch the water a whole house humidifier normally dumps down the drain. We will also add a 5 gallon tank and an automatic water treatment dispenser so we can reduce the disgusting mess that grows on the water panel and presumably is then circulated through ones house.
Here’s a link to the parts in my store:
https://whathavewelearned.myshopify.com/collections/humidifier
Here’s the type of humidifier I’m referring to:
Here’s the hardware we’re going to tack onto this thing to make it good:
Supply
The goal here is to fill a tank, the 5 gallon jug, with water. The water entering that tank will be metered. A water level sensor will tell notify us when the water is under a certain level. Additionally there will be a float valve in the tank on the water input line. This will prevent overfilling. Our water meter will detect when water has stopped flowing and calculate the amount of water treatment needed based on the volume of water that entered the tank.
A secondary small tank will contain a solution of water treatment which will gravity feed into our main tank when needed controlled by an electronic valve.
The flow meter will also be responsible for the electronic valve on the water supply. We don’t want a constant trickle resulting from the float valve because we won’t have an effective way to treat the water.
Return
The metal trough will serve to catch the water coming out of the humidifier. This is one of the things I really dislike about these things, normally all the excess water goes straight down the drain. A pump and water level sensor will recirculate this back to the main tank. Our MCU will disregard this water from our treatment calculation as it has already been treated.
Making Humidity
Lastly an electronic valve will allow gravity to cause the main tank to drain into the humidifier/water panel and overflow into the trough. This valve will open and close based on the water level in the trough preventing overflow.