Hi ,
I have got breamer evaporative cooling LCQ550 and breamer gas heating system TQ420 installed and both connected to one MagicIQ touch controller, I want to know of I can replace the controller with a smart controller like , nest thermostat or any other smart thermostat or not ? Will I loose any features by moving away from the factory controller?
How to manage the evaporative cooler ? Better to leave the evaporative cooler on MagicIQ touch controller and move heating to nest ?
That would be the easiest. I like to tinker with electronics and such, but I haven't come up with a hack for the cooler control that I'm confident with. I might give it a go during winter, that way if I break anything, I can take my time getting it fixed. I couldn't live without my cooling in summer.
Did you consider MagicIQ touch controller with wifi? Or you think best option is nest ?
@vikram425: I was replacing a fairly primitive heating controller. I don't know anything about the MagicIQ. I try to keep all my automation to the least amount of apps and it is part of the Google family of gadgets which I already have.
Pretty sure evaporative coolers are not thermostatically controlled. Don't they just have variable fan speed?
The Magiqtouch controller has both fan speed and thermostat options.
You are right. Evaporative triggers differently than air conditioning or heaters. With a heater, you can turn it on or off, and set a temperature. The system runs for a few minutes with a fixed fan speed, then turns off for a few minutes, then repeats. The house keeps an approximate temperature that is set.
Evaporative runs continuously and can either keep just the fan ventilating the house, or run the fan while cycling the water pump to keep the pads wet. You need to fiddle with the fan speed until you are comfortable, and not run faster or slower than that. A "wet" breeze will generally be cooler for the same fan speed. It is about a comfort level rather than chasing a particular temperature, like refrigerated systems. You can't turn them on and off every few minutes and try to control the temperature in your house — one moment yo will be enjoying a cool sea breeze, then you will have a still-air dry heat. Unfortunately you can't use the Nest to speed up or slow down the fan or turn on the water pump. That needs to be done through your existing controller. All you might be able to do is turn the system on or off, and hope that the existing settings are suitable. They have no other control of an evaporative system.
I have just installed new evap and heating and choose the MagicIQ controller with wifi adapter as well.
It has an app you can control from your phone and use anywhere to control your heating and cooling, providing your internet is connected at a home. It talks to google, Alexa etc and is part of some of my Google routines.
It tells me temperatures insides and outside, runs routines (day and time schedules) recycled fan mode and fresh air and some other options I haven’t played with.
It is a smart controller, so I am not really sure why you want to replace it? Maybe you just need to add the wifi module to achieve what you want?
Edit - my evap can either be run as a fan speed or set an indoor temp. Heating is only temp control. Then it has options for fan mode to cycle air. (Indoor or outdoor)
Is the wifi adaptor an extra or do I have to buy a new MagicIQ touch controller with wifi built in ?
It’s a module that you buy and add to the controller
Why exactly do you want a smart controller? If you can explain what you are trying to achieve we can help you.
Do you want to be able to turn on the heater when not at home? Do you want it to run a program where it turns on the same time everyday? (Your controller can already do this natively)
You may be looking for a feature from your cooling or heating that your model doesn’t support, so a smart controller won’t help anyway.
want it to be able to control it remotely, due to the job the times when I am home are always different so the scheduling doesn't really works, also I want it to be able to integrate to my existing automation/smart home tech like smart windows and blinks via IFTTT
I'd spend the money on getting a better cooling system.
yeah, evaporative is a waste of money nowadays, just get a split or ducted that cover both heating and cooling, and put in a $30 broadlink ir remote that works with google/alexa.
Hi Vikram,
So did you get the Nest running with your breamer heating? If yes, could you please share the wiring pic.
My wiring looks like this
https://imgur.com/gallery/YXRhDIN
I imagine red and black comes from the bettery to power the thermostat and Grey/Back goes to the main unit.
Do I need to run extra cable to power the Nest or existing Grey/Black would be enough?
2 larger wire will go to rH and W (doesn't matter which), you will need to get 2 wires to hook up the ground and 24vac terminal on the board of the heater itself to connect C and rC so the nest will have enough voltage to charge and run when it's in running mode. The 24v and ground pin can be found inside the heater itself, on the same side as the 2 existing wire. If you have trouble fishing that 2 wire out then just spend $30 on jaycar 24vac transformer and hook them up.
I replaced my heating thermostat with a Nest and it was the best thing I ever did. I can control the temperature or turn it off and on with a verbal command (via Google/Alexa) while upstairs in bed. I used to have to get up and walk downstairs and back to do the same thing, and hope I got the temperature right.
They are mostly designed around American HVAC climate control systems, and ours are a bit different in Australia. Gas heaters are typically triggered on, and then turn off when the temperature is achieved. Pretty simple, and compatible with these controllers. The Nest unit is also able to control a cooler, typically an air-conditioner, where the thermostat is separate from the main unit. It can be configured to turn on/off a simple relay for cooling, taking its temperature cues from the Nest controller. You could probably cobble something together across the existing controller to switch an evaporative cooler on and off (I haven't). The problem is, there are many different modes in an evaporative system which aren't duplicated. You cannot vary the fan speed, it is whatever the existing controller has selected. You cannot control the water pump for evaporative cooling vs. fan only. I guess it would only work if you can set an average setting that you are happy with and turn it off when it gets too cold, and back on later. That's a lot of manual control, and it isn't suitable for when you are asleep.