water heating electicals

[ecsimonson]

Anyone familiar with this stuff? I have 2 heating zones and I need them be mutually exclusive, ie. only one can run at a time. One is the hot water heat and needs priority over house heat. I have 2 24v thermostat loops. What I need is a switch that has 6 connections. 2 connections are from the thermostat on the hot water loop. When those 2 have power I need 2 of the others to have continuity. When they don't have power the remaining 2 will have continuity. Should this be a pretty simple thing to accomplish. The plumbing supply place of course wants to sell me a $140 controller to do this and it would also control the whole system. I don't really want to rewire all the pumps and zone control valves. I am searching types of switches but haven't found one that will do that yet. Thanks in advance.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Sounds like you need a triple pole, double throw switch. You would have a couple of unused terminals but that is what you need to make it work.

Is this all 24v? No 120v?

Charles

HERE is a 15 amp rated 4 pole double throw with center off you don't need the center off, but it won't hurt, and in fact could be used to disconnect both thermostats from the system when in center off position. You would have one complete set of three terminals you would not be using, but for the price, whats to lose.

 

[ecsimonson]

Sorry, i should have been clear. I found what I need, its a DPDT relay. It needs to happen automatically, no physical switch to move.