We are having two Infratech WD60 Patio Heaters (240V) installed very soon. Initially the electrician was swaying me towards using a Contactor to run the heaters but then I discovered the Aeotec Heavy Duty Switch (Smart Relay) which should be able to run them. Due to the number of switches already next to the patio door, we’ve decided we don’t want a physical switch at the door to control the heaters. We’ll primarily control from our phones as we don’t want guests (or our 4 year old) messing with the switches and turning on the heaters. That was one reason swaying me towards the Aeotec switch. I also liked the idea of being able to see how much energy the patio heaters were using, granted that probably isn’t a good reason to use the relay over the contactor.
That being said, I do like the idea of having a physical switch/control somewhere to control the heaters versus relying on technology. That led me to the idea of installing a smart switch inside the box housing the contactor. The electrician was planning on installing this box next to our main circuit breaker box, so in reality there won’t be a whole lot of walking difference between switching off the dedicated circuit breaker, versus opening the contactor box and turning off the smart switch. I believe the contactors will have some exposed wiring inside the box so technically shutting off the breaker would probably be safer than opening the contactor box and pushing the switch.
What are people’s thoughts on using the Aeotec Relay versus the Contactor and Smart Switch?
And, which Inovelli switch would be best for the Contactor? I currently have extra Blue Fan Switches, Red 2-in-1 switches, and older Black On/Off switches that I could use. I’m assuming the Black would be best?
The Blue or Red will work. The will be no load on the switch, so you will just wire a hot and neutral to make it a scene controller. Then use multi-taps with an automation to control the relay.
Generally speaking, the Black Gen 2 doesn’t support multi-taps. IIRC, the black had one firmware release that supported limited multi-taps, but a newer release did away with it. I suppose you could try your Black to test it, but if it were me, I’d just use one of the others.
All of this is -obviously- my opinion (aka ‘if it were my house’…)
I would stick with the contactor-and-separate-control-switch. There are a variety of reasons, but the most impactful are being able to use commodity contactors in a standard/commodity enclosure, and also being able to use ‘standard’ smart switches. That would allow you to separately change the contactors as necessary and switches as you desire. Perhaps that’s a failure, perhaps a change in radio technology, perhaps you’re selling the house and want to revert to manual switches. If you used the Aeotec, you’re having to replace the whole unit, or even attempt to change it to something else.
That’s all probably pretty obvious, but I did want to (lightheartedly, positively) challenge you on a couple of points. First, you should never plan to use a breaker as a switching device. I have seen it done in numerous locations for what is likely thousands of cycles (business-daily use over multiple years) of makes-and-breaks with no apparent issues, but it is not a listed use. Second, there’s no reason why the switches can’t be in a separate box than the contactors. While I don’t think there’s much safety risk there, it would be nonzero, and having the switches in a separate box would alleviate some of that. Another tip would be to have the 120V control circuit identified and marked either on the switch box or the breaker panel for ease in positively shutting down the control circuit.
I believe your answer is in regards to using a smart switch for the Relay. If using the Contactor, the Contactor will be the load on the switch. At least that’s my understanding.
Yes, I was referring to the Aeotec relay. If you use the contactor, you’d had to look at the specs, as contactors have inrush current. I don’t have any experience with using Inovellis with a contactor, so I can’t comment on their suitability. But it seems to me you want a true on/off switch for that purpose, which would be the black Gen 2. Discuss the switch requirements with your electrician.
I 99.9% agree with you that the contactor solution is superior to the Aeotec relay and have come back around to that being the best solution.
I have implied a few things I didn’t necessarily mean to. I didn’t mean to imply the switch would have to be in the contactor box. I know we don’t want the switch at the door to the deck/patio (upstairs). Our Circuit Breaker box is in a bedroom basement closet, so we would generally prefer not to have a lot of extra boxes there, so I guess I initially thought “We’ll get a slightly bigger box and just put the contactors and switches in the same box.” But you are right, the switches could be in a separate box or wouldn’t need to be in a box at all.
I also didn’t mean to imply we would use the Heater Circuit Breaker as a “switch” that would see frequent use. This would be on rare ('emergency"?) occasions we needed to shut things down.
Yes, I’m pretty good about labeling things, and considering the heater switches/box will be so far away from the actual heaters and it would be very unintuitive what they are for, they will definitely get a label.
I just did a bit more research on Contactor Inrush Current. I wasn’t aware of this. I was previously thinking that there was very little current actually needed, and for the most part that is true. Yes, I’ll confirm with the electrician on whether or not a Smart Switch will be suitable.
I had considered a smart relay of some sort to control the contactor. What’s the best one (Z-wave preferred)? I believe the Aeotec Heavy Duty is probably overkill for this, but maybe not? Of course, then we are also back to having no physical way to shut it off in the event my Home Assistant is down, which I do not like. Or, do most of the Smart Relays have a physical button also?
Edit: I could also do a Z-wave association between a scene controller/switch and the relay which would be slightly better than nothing.
Zooz ZEN51 is what I end up using when I need a Z-Wave relay. It does have a button you can use, but I generally put a Red 2-1 as a scene controller and use Z-Wave Associations to control it.
It’s likely simpler though to just use the older black series on/off switch you have directly with the contactor though.
Put the black switch in a surface mounted box beside the box housing the contactor with a nipple joining them together. Then, you can access the switch easily.
I did this for my big 240V air compressor using a red switch. It works fine. I just turn it on when I need it. HA shuts it off every evening at 11pm. I have a solenoid I need to also install so the air lines also get automatically shut off.