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I want to control multiple baseboard heaters in my house, but I don't want to put a raspberry pi connected to a solid state relay behind each baseboard heater, or even connect it to the thermostat, as the raspi is rather large and it requires a clunky power adapter. Is there a wireless/bluetooth/RF solid state relay which also gets powered by the AC line (208V)? I will have sensors all over the house, I just want to be able to send an ON or OFF signal to these solid state relays without having to have miles of cabling

EDIT: I essentially want to build something like this product, but connecting to the baseboard using wires rather then an electric outlet, and being able to communicate to it through a computer. Also, I don't believe these guys need any other power source (ie. batteries)

enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Why can't you just use the MCU in the wifi/BT/Zigbee module to run the SSR? \$\endgroup\$
    – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 9:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @IgnacioVazquez-Abrams because I have no idea what that is...or what I am doing. I am a programmer, not a hardware guy \$\endgroup\$
    – puk
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 9:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ There's not really such a thing as a wireless SSR available as a component as far as I know. That device you've linked would most likely contain a microcontroller, RF receiver and probably a kind of power supply that wouldn't be safe apart from the fact it's double-insulated which is why it's so small. \$\endgroup\$
    – PeterJ
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 9:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ @PeterJ So is there a way to, for example, control my baseboard without having to use a huge 120 V AC to 5V DC power adaptor? Are there simple small adaptors? I am just trying to wrap my head around the fact that these SSRs always require a large power supply, so it is hard to conceal them in places, like walls \$\endgroup\$
    – puk
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 10:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ A slightly related question is Small AC Transformer but in reality that device probably contains something like this but read all the warnings on the answer, it would be a bad approach for a beginner and hard to make safe. \$\endgroup\$
    – PeterJ
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 10:28

2 Answers 2

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Google for EnOcean relay. You should find relays that can handle this. You will need a wireless switch or a EnOcean thermostat to controls them.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is exactly what i was looking for. The power supply is 24/120/240/277 VA but I am using 208 VA, I know with baseboard heaters you can feed 208 VA even though it is listed as 240 VA, is it the same with these? \$\endgroup\$
    – puk
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 0:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ You should be able to find specific devices for 208Vac coil voltage. Like RIBW208B-EN2. I guest a 240Vac model should work at 208Vac... depend on your load. \$\endgroup\$
    – FMarion
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 0:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ Any reason why there is no information as to maximum wattage? \$\endgroup\$
    – puk
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 0:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ You should at least have the current rating. Your home braker should be 20amp or 15amp ? Try to match both rating. \$\endgroup\$
    – FMarion
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 1:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ What about something like this, it seems to be what I want, but I can't find out what the input voltage is seeedstudio.com/depot/… \$\endgroup\$
    – puk
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 1:15
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Powerline communications is a possible way to do this. Here is an article from TI (formerly a National semi article) about powerline comms for driving speakers around the house with them connected only to AC. Here are Tx and Rx circuits. Note that this is driving an analogue signal by modulation through the power wiring in a house and detecting and restoring the signal for presentation to a receiving loudspeaker.

This can easily be adapted to some form of simple data modulation for controlling relays.

enter image description here

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