As anyone ever replaced an Aldes HRV wall controller with something more intelligent?
I have this dry wall controller and I am trying to find something I could decide when it runs and also have it switch to recycle when the AC is on instead of the purge that brings all the hot air inside.
Most Aldes residential wall controls are just dry contacts on the unit’s 24 V terminal strip — 1–3 for low speed, 1–4 for high, 1–5 for the EvacMAX boost. If yours is one of those, replacing the controller is straightforward: put relays across those terminals and let HA decide when each one closes. Your AC-to-recirculation rule then becomes a normal automation.
Two things to check before anyone can give you a concrete answer:
The exact model. There is no 61124 in the Aldes literature — 611242-FC is the digital multifunction control, and that one may talk its own protocol rather than close contacts. Look at the label on the back of the plate.
A photo of the terminal strip inside the unit. Recirculation is the part I would not assume: boost is documented, a dedicated recirc contact is not, so it may not be reachable from the wall control at all.
With the right number, 611242, my earlier answer changes. It isn’t a simple switch on the wall. It has its own power, 22 to 26 VAC, and it sends that 24 V back out to the unit to ask for a speed. On the back, terminal 1 (black) is the 24 V coming in, 2 (white) is the common, 3 (red) calls high speed, 4 (green) calls low, and 5 (green) is where an Aldes timer would plug in. The two little DIP switches just tell it what kind of unit it’s attached to — one is recirculation on or off, the other is electronic versus free cooling. Set them to match your ventilator; they have nothing to do with Home Assistant.
I wouldn’t try to hook into the wall control itself. The easier place is the ventilator, which has its own low-voltage terminal block with eight terminals, and there it’s just contacts you close: 1 to 3 gives you low speed, 1 to 4 gives high (there’s a jumper between 3 and 4 for that one), and 1 to 5 is the boost. So three relays on any ESPHome board, wired alongside the existing control. The wall control carries on working exactly as it does now.
Have a look at your own unit with a meter first and make sure it matches before you wire anything.
