kwgst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Filip Gieszczykiewicz) (01/18/91)
Greetings. I have been reading all these posts about "Home Control Systems" (HCS) and how (possibly) dangerous electric fileds are (If it's true, I should be dead by now :-) Anyways, I was wondering: Can I re-wire the house in such a way as to be able to shut down unneeded sections of electric outlets, say, for the night. We have a decently sane central fuse-box, ie. lots of fuses for a lot of circuits. Most of them are used to power things like wall clocks, night-lights, etc. Now, my question is: Can I put some relays in series with the fuses (most probably mount them on a wall, in the cellar) so that I can safely control the power in the house? I realize that a relay has to be tested under load. I was also thinking of putting in 2 ralays, in series, for each load - in case one "fuses" up, the other can be shut off. This does not mean that I want to shut down all of the house. It helps if a refrigirator is left running. Also, how safe would this be? I would plan to use 30-40AMP 250V relays (probably solid-state) even if the fuse for that circuit would be ~10AMPS (we have the resettable variety) We already wired the house for intercom as well as stereo-audio, so these matters are not above our heads... ;-) Any comments? I think that the BYTE Home Control System used a similar scheme, although I think that the guy used pre-assembled-tested "modules" to do the job. Take care. Please use e-mail to reply. Please give a few days before sending me a "Me too!" reply :-) -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If reply bounces, try "kwgst@pittvms"... no? try "fmgst@unix.cis.pitt.edu" Did you hear? Some Poles burned the Russian flag by the Soviet embassy in Poland ------------------------------------------------------------------------------