Thermostat Wiring

[luvrbus]

Here the deal my new ride has 3 zones with AC,heat pumps and the Aqua Hot with sensors in different areas all controlled by 1 thermostat, My question is can I use a separate thermostat to control the Aqua Hot it is a real PITA to tell the thermostat to fire the Aqua Hot you need to change the mode everytime when going from the heat pumps to the Aqua Hot plus the thermostat is not very accurate either  (RV Comfort 20 thermostat)

thanks

[richard5933]

Any chance that they terminated the wiring coming from the different units in an accessible place? Like maybe behind the thermostat? That would make it easy.

One potential problem is having the different systems fighting each other if they are set to opposite systems (heat vs cool) inadvertently.

[RichardEntrekin]

The short answer is yes, you can use a separate thermostat. It needs to be a 12 VDC model.

There are a couple of challenges you may face. If your new ride has different heat zones then you will need sep tstats for those zones OR standalone temp sensors.

And be aware that on some Aquahots, they used a ground to turn the unit on and off. There is a little trick of using a standard Bosch cube relay triggered by 12V positive to activate the relay, but the relay contacts actually make to ground in order to trigger the control circuit.

[sledhead]

on my old aquahot system all the tstats used the ground , so yes to the cube relays . the problem I found was for the water heater system to work the bathroom heat loop had to run so there was heat transfer for the water heater ? so this meant that in the heat of summer the ac was on and the floor and cozy heaters were hot ?? . The only saver was the fan behind the heaters was not on so to not move the heat around ?

my new system will make hot water heater only if I want it . way less on and off with the boiler and no more hot floors ! in the middle of a heat wave

dave 

[luvrbus]

Ok is there a better brand of thermostat besides the RV Comfort on the market,my floor heat is controlled by the Silver Leaf so that is not a problem

[Geoff]

Its been a while since I dealt with this but Walmart used to sell a wall thermostat that worked on 12v for under $20.

[chessie4905]

Maybe one of these will fill the bill...


https://www.smartrving.net/best-rv-thermostats/

[RichardEntrekin]

Not trying to be a knucklehead. But the author of that article listed Honeywell models as being 12V compatible. That raised my interest. Honeywell site says they are 24VAC only. They may work on 12 VDC, but that would have to be tested.

[chessie4905]

I think I would go to the Honeywell site and verify and review all that they offer.

[luvrbus]

I need to have 1 thermostat that will control the 3 zones.AC,heat pump and the Aqua hot  for the 3 zones so far it has been the RV Comfort is all I can find,I wish it had a thermostat for each zone life would be easy 

[DoubleEagle]

If you have only one thermostat for the whole coach, it might not be correct to say that you have three zones, since you only have one temperature sensor to turn things on and off. In a house situation zones refer to thermostats being on different levels or areas of the house, with different temperature settings possible in each zone. In your case, you have three possible sources of heating or cooling, and the coordination of which one comes on is not working well. My 1984 Eagle has a MemphisAire A/C Electric furnace combo that is split between the baggage bay and the living area. It has one digital thermostat to regulate the temperature, but you have to slide a switch whether you want A/C or heat. Having two sources of heat is the confusing factor in your case.

You need to find someone who has great knowledge of control systems that also happens to own a bus with mechanical problems that he can't figure out, or arrange to trade your new coach for a really special Eagle that has a 600 hp CAT (pre EGR), and excellent heating and cooling. But then, why would someone with an Eagle like that ever trade for a Country Coach? 

Just had a thought, what about Nick Badame, maybe he could guide you.

[luvrbus]

I have 3 zone sensors 1 at the front ,1 in the middle and 1 in the bed room,I have total coach control by Sliver Leaf to control the floor, I have no idea what controls the bay heat it comes on automatic when the temperature reaches 35, I have 2 manuals as thick as a Houston phone directory  so I have a lot of reading to do, I will figure this thing out once I learn how to turn the TV on  I did get the theater surround system on watching a movie then could not turn it off.I like this Country Coach Walter it drives and rides like a dream all the electronics will take time for a old dog   

[Van]

  No worries Clifford, we'll help ya sort it out.

[mmanning]

I did a little poking around today, but didn't find any thermostat that would better match with your Aqua-Hot.  Since Aqua-Hot and Coleman are owned by AIRXCEL, the RV Comfort 20 thermostat keeps coming up in each search I have done.  You do have Coleman air conditioners, right?

I thought for a minute that the Furrion CHILL Multi Zone Wall Thermostat might work, but from what I am seeing it probably only works well with Furrion equipment and has only basic integration with non Furrion heating systems.

Perhaps you can integrate your Aqua-Hot with your Silver Leaf system.  Here is a link I found for the Silver Leaf Aqua-Hot module: http://tech.silverleafelectronics.com/node/281  I don't really know anything about Silver Leaf beyond what I have read, but maybe this could be an option..

Also, you may already know this; but there is a section of the Silver Leaf technical resources where you can look up information about your new ride: http://tech.silverleafelectronics.com/node/27

[DoubleEagle]

Well then, thank goodness you have complete manuals with good wiring diagrams, I hope. Yes, old Eagles are a lot simpler, but you have a lot of new things to explore now and keep you active.