Larry,

Yes America is universally accepted as the king of all the nanny states.
NZ is getting there but still has a long way to go.

home-made relay

I am sorry if I gave the impression that I was intending to buy
something from radio shack and cobble it up with insulating tape and
solder or worse wind my own. This isn't quite what I have in mind.... I
was going to use a rail mounted relay? They are designed and made for
switching mains electricity. They have a base socket that mounts on a
standard rail within the fuse panel (the same rail that RCD and cct
breakers are attached to). Have a look at
http://ecb.omron.com.sg/product/c-relaygp.asp I can buy the LY series
from any local electrical supplier. As far as I can find out these are
sold to be used in mains connected systems and they are approved for use
connected to the mains.

My feeling is that using such an approved relay in a system will not
violate the regulations BUT it is a good point that is worth checking so
thanks.



Larry W4CSC wrote:
Steve wrote in :


You are kidding right? If not, what specific code are you referring to?
I think my insurance says you need a electrician to certify it.



Unless you are in some third world country, your country will have an
ELECTRICAL CODE, like the NEC (National Electric Code) in the USA. All
electrical components must be NEC components.

Your question was about something home-made. If it ever caused a fire and
were "Not To Code", the insurance company would simply disallow the claim.

An example happened to a country church I used to fix the Hammond organ
for....

Instead of buying proper in-floor 115VAC recepticals, those round brass
floor outlets you see in a mall store all over which have flip-top covers
or screw covers to protect the sunken outlets noone can step on and break,
the church decided to save a few bucks by installing wall outlets in the
stage floor on either side of the pulpit and putting a metal outlet cover,
no protection at all, on them. This is NOT to CODE. They are WALL
outlets.

Well, someone stepped on one and cracked open the plastic outlet, but it
didn't immediately arc and catch the wooden stage on fire. That happened
some time between Sunday night service and Wednesday prayer service. Being
isolated way out in the country, noone saw it go up in flames. The
insurance company found out about the Not to Code wiring and disallowed the
claim for the fire.

Don't blame me....ask your insurance guy if you can put a home-made relay
in your AC line and be insured by his underwriters.....