Heating immersion heater - can a triac be used? - that old topic!

Read what feels like several hundred forums posts all over the internet about the topic.

 

Question:  Can TRIAC's be used to drive the immersion without problems?

Probably have to fire the triac at zero crossing.

 

Is this the basis for the Crydom solid state relay with proportional output?

 

madmurg's picture

Re: Heating immersion heater - can a triac be used? - that old topic!

I have built my solar immersion controller with a triak and it is working great see image

Phill W's picture

Re: Heating immersion heater - can a triac be used? - that old topic!

Hi everyone, I am looking at using an Arduino Uno with Ct sensors to monitor my solar output and dump the excess into the immersion heater.

The water is normally heated from economy 7 and has a 3kW element.

Having trawled t'internet I was looking at using a triac to control the flow to the element. I am fairly new to the world of triacs and AC generally - apart from the odd belt from mains obviously!

An I right on the following?:

Triacs only let, effectively, 1/2 waves through?

Triacs ramp up their output linearly according to the input (from the Arduino).

Are there issues with triacs and :

a: EM noise

b: problems with the extra 1/2 wave feeding into the mains / household supply

Sorry to be vague, just trying to get my head around all of this and dont have time to read the 240+ page triac theory document kindly made available from MrSharkey

 

Cheers

Phill

stuart's picture

Re: Heating immersion heater - can a triac be used? - that old topic!

More info over here...

http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/176

 

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