Brutus Wiring Questions

So, my "experience" with electrical work mainly consists of wiring a light fixture, light switches and install new receptacles around the house. Since each component of my Brutus build is essentially a switch (and follows pretty closely JLandin's awesome rig), I hope I'm on the right track. I'll be using a Honeywell furnace valve (24VAC, .5A), the TS-13101 Love Controller (110VAC, 16A) and Little Giant pumps (115VAC, 2.4A).

I was planning on using this transformer to step down to 24VAC for the furnace valves. Also, I'll be using 3 position switches to control the valves (auto, which will power the love controller, on, which will send current directly to the furnace valves, and off). I've also tried to design a circuit using inline fuses rated 125%-150% of the amprage of each component, but haven't used fuses before.

Since I can't read/draw a proper schematic, here's my wiring diagram (black = hot, blue = nuetral, green = ground):


Any comments/suggestions (other than "keep your day job") would be greatly appreciated. One specific question I had was whether the transformer I linked to above would work for this setup given that the valves will only require .5A; the transformer will output 20A. I wanted to make sure that the valves will only pull .5A and thus not blow my 1A fuses. Also, can I just use 12AWG for the whole circuit given that it shouldn't be using more than 20A? Or is there a reason to use smaller guage wire for the components that use less? Again, this is new territory for me, so any guidance would be great. Thanks!

Figured I'd bump this to see if there are any electrically-inclined friends in the evening crowd.

It's difficult for anyone to tell anything from your drawing. You need to label the connections on your drawing.

Thanks Sawdustguy. Just to be clear, what do you mean label the connections? Do you mean I should identify where each wire is going from the terminal? Or something else? I really appreciate the help.

I'm going to give this another try. I've reuploaded the diagram and tried to label everything I could think of (other than the wire gauge). I think that I have wires going to all of the right places, but I guess I still have questions about wire gauge and using the fuses.

From what I've read, I should be able to use 12AWG into each of the fuses and then use larger gauge wire from each fuse to the applicable device. Can I use 12AWG everywhere (even if the device isn't drawing that many amps) or is there a reason to switch to the larger gauge? If the device started drawing too many amps, I would think that the fuse would still blow. Also, does the total amps from all of the devices impact the wire gauge (which is about 38 amps)? Or is it a matter of looking at each "leg" (which wouldn't be more than the 16 amps going to one of the love controllers)?

Before switching everything on, I'll try to find an electrician to look at everything, but I was hoping to learn as much as possible and do as much as I can myself. Thanks for any insight.

-HH

Your arrangement of the LOVEs is not correct. The LOVEs output 110VAC which will not switch the furnace valves. You likely need to get some SSRs that trigger at 110VAC and send though the 24VAC from the transformer.

You are close though.

Yes, you are close! Please see my schematic here. I believe it will help you. Please PM me if you have ANY questions.

Thanks for the quick responses guys! Since I haven't ordered the transformer yet (and since they're pretty cheap), would it just be easier to pick up two more of those and place them in between the love controllers and valves? Or is there another benefit to using the SSRs that I'm not aware of? Earthbound - it looks like you just used the transformer to accomplish this.

It will be cheaper to use one xfmr and a 24VAC bus, instead of three xfmrs. It will also take up less space.

Just remember that the xfmr I'm using goes from 120VAC to 24VDC because one of my valves is 24VDC, so there must also be a rectifier in the little black box that the xfmr is in.

Not sure if this would help, an older diagram for a "Brutus" type system I have put together for use with honeywell parts. http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/PanelWiringDiagram#5507979690350514498

Thanks Kladue. I've spent about a half an hour staring at the diagram and have a couple of questions. Analogizing to my diagram, it looks like I'd need to send a hot wire from the transformer to port 10 of the love controller. But I'm a little confused by how your series wiring works; does you diagram mean that I would need to send the hot 24VAC wire to port 10 and also split it to "auto" position of the three way switch (which allows the Love controller to operate the valve)? Also, it looks like the switches at the bottom of your diagram that control the valves are connected to 120VAC and not 24VAC. Is that correct? I must be reading the diagram wrong since I think those would also need to be 24VAC to open the pumps when the switch is "on".

The red lines are the 24Vac portion of the diagram for the honeywell valves, the blue lines are the 120Vac portion. On the Honeywell valve side the 24V is split to the switches to permit manual, off, or automatic operation with a DPST center off switch. The 120Vac side has switches for 2 pumps and 2 solenoid valves for liquid flow if needed. This diagram was setup for 3 honeywell ignition modules or gas valves, leave out what you do not need.

Check out the relays this guy has.

I believe the one you want on that ebay page is this one: Solid state relay SSR 24-380V AC/25A output, 80-250V AC.

The 120VAC output from the LOVE switch will input into the relay. The relay will need to output 24VAC that you must provide. This transformer will provide that 24VAC for you.

Thanks Earthbound! I was planning on wiring a 110VAC-24VAC transformer to another bus so that I can run current directly to the valve to operate it manually; I assume I could just run wires from the 24VAC bus directly to the SSRs to accomplish the same thing?

The input to the relay will be the two 120VAC wires (hot and neutral). The output of the relay is a little different: On one side, it will have one 24VAC wire (hot) from your xfmr; the other side will have a wire going to the valve (this wire will be switched on and off by the input of your relay).

Sorry, I posted my last post at the same time as your last post. Yes, you can accomplish a "manual" mode the way you described in the first part of your post (NOT through the SSRs but through the HOA (handoffauto) switch) and an "auto" mode with the way I described, I THINK. Someone else needs to confirm this as a sanity check.

Can someone else confirm this?