i'm looking to add some ice melt cables to my gutters. installer says to plan for 5 circuits, each either 20A or 30A. these will be 120V. i suspect my needs are similar to those trying to control pool pumps, spa heaters, or large pump/fan motors.
insteon is the first place i looked. this seems to be too much current to trust to on/off modules. the regular, outdoor, micro, and din-rail on-off modules are rated for 15A. the in-linelinc is rated 20A. then there's the 2477SA1 load controller (30A) but that appears designed for 240V. instructions do not make it clear whether this will work if i just connect it to 120V - i.e., leave L2 capped.
on the z-wave side, i see there's an in-touch / intermatic CA3750 that looks interesting. rated for 30A. anyone know if indigo supports this? should be a straightforward on/off switch i think or perhaps a double-switch (since apparently it can function as either a DPST switch or as two independent SPST's. strangely, this device doesn't appear anywhere on intermatic website.
and there's the aeon labs "Heavy Duty Smart Energy Appliance Switch" (ZW078-A) which can switch up to 40A. looks good, although docs are rather sparse. i see this device listed for sale, though oddly once again, aeon labs website does not list this as a current product (it says "coming soon").
the other possibility is to buy a high-current relay (aka "contactor"). these can generally be controlled by low-voltage DC (e.g. 24v) or by 120V. the contactors tend to be common and pretty cheap (apparently they're used in applications like HVAC). amazon sells some for <$20. to tie these into Indigo,, i'd either have to dedicate an insteon or z-wave device such as a micro on-off module for each controlled circuit.
elk (the alarm company) packages up a contactor in a nice metal box and will sell you the whole thing (about $80) as the ELK-9200. just add an appliance module and you have a complete solution, possibly a solution, however it is a bit bulky and expensive, but at least "validates" that it is a sane idea to build my own control using a contactor.
ideally, what i really like to have is something like a high-power version of an in-linelinc. looks like the aeon labs ZW078-A probably comes closest to this.
some specific questions:
can i use the insteon 2477SA1 with 120V (instead of 240)?
with a purely resistive load (heat tape), should i "trust" an in-lineLinc to run at or near its rated 20A capacity?
i'm leaning towards aeon ZW078-A - anyone know if it is supported by indigo and if not, can i "fake it" (since i just need it to behave as an on/off switch)?
anyone have any experience with intouch CA3750 (i searched and found nothing in the forums)? will it work with indigo?
is it practical to use CA3750 to control two high-current loads? or would that just create more problems in terms of how i connect it up to the rest of the electrical system (bigger breaker, etc.)?
does anyone have other experience or advice with controlling high-current loads?