Google’s Night Sight for Pixel phones will amaze you | 220v Contactor Relay

You really should drop the 110/240 volts statements and use 120/240 volts for residential installs. I don’t think 110 volts has been used since Thomas Edison.

Unfortunately, by in large, the comments for this article were unnecessarily negative, and downright factually inaccurate.

Washing machines etc. have their own 10-16A fuses. 3 phase 16A power is used for larger equipment, most commonly for semi-permanent installation like oven&stove combo and electric sauna stove. Those are usually connected to star, so single element in equipment will still see 230V.

Very nice hack and well documented, safety issues included. For all the rest of the naysayers, you are far more likely to die driving your electric car than from a charger failure yet most people think nothing of jumping in the car despite it being one of the leading causes of death in the US.

You like many others here can wallow in their own baseless opinions, meanwhile millions including myself very safely charge up using 120 volts almost every night. I usually use a higher voltage for the BOLT, but the ELR mostly just charges on 120 the same as most VOLTS.

I am glad, that finally someone posts this, because this is also my information about dangers of electricity. I just have not been sure enough, if I had missed something. I also heard, that a DC accident can kill you hours later even if you are not burnt that heavily, because DC is able to cause electrolysis in your body which upsets the delicate balance of electrolytes in your blood and tissue.

Anyone “hacking” an appliance that can literally burn down your house, voids any safety certifications the appliance was manufactured with. The insurance company would ‘probably’ have the option of simply denying any claims arising from a fire caused by the hacked appliance. This is speculation since I’m not an attorney, but it would be prudent to consult with a knowledgeable agent before undertaking any such projects. My policy specifically excludes “events” as a result of deliberate modification of appliances that the manufacturer of said appliance has not authorized.

The thing about the picture that worries me is the receptacles seem to be mounted below 18 inches from the floor. That is a BIG NO-NO. IF there are any gasoline cans in the garage for an old lawn-mower, etc then he has just created an explosion hazard.

About 20yr ago I changed the big noisy (*) contactor for the 400V/3 phase 1kW pool pump to a 4 pole relay similar to this one: https://www.reichelt.at/Industrierelais/FIN-55-34-8-230V/3/index.html?ACTION=3&LA=2&ARTICLE=13324&GROUPID=7622&artnr=FIN+55.34.8+230V&trstct=pol_4 because of the noise it made. It makes small sparks at the contacts, but is switching every day in summer since 20yrs. If there is no cleaning work to do, the pump is only switched one cycle per day by a timer. So, maybe 2000 or 3000 switching cycles is not much for a relay, but it is sufficient. And even if it would burn out now, it had a 20yr lifetime. *) the loud “clonk” when it pulled in and sometimes humming from the coil. That disturbed my father sleeping in a near room. We do not need remote control, it just has to work.

My grandmother had a set of glass topped buffet serving tables where the glass top had a foil element sandwiched between the glass layers. They plugged right into the wall. No components other than the heating element, line cord, and a neon bulb to remind you it was plugged in. The element terminated with a couple of fused in copper rods threaded to take nuts. Got too hot to comfortably touch, but warm enough to keep your food hot. It should be within the capabilities of a glass/ceramics hobbiest with a kiln to sandwich a foil element between two pieces of glass and fuse the sandwich together.

This makes a lot of sense. There are many rather cheap dimmers that can drive a 500W ‘flood’ lamp, so it’s probably better to modify one of theses, and keep it outside the wall socket…

A few people made some useful design suggestions. I like the Power Integrations LNK switch suggestion for power. I’d also recommend looking at the SR086, which does the same thing — but it’s inductorless! That’s the chip I’m using for my ESP8266-based WiFi dimmer.