As Nick noted, The 10 amp rating means 2400W is fine in Australia on a 240V circuit but not on a 120V circuit in the US.
Right, in the US it would be ~1200, which is in the technical data here:
https://manuals.fibaro.com/relay-switch/
| Power supply: | 110-240 V AC, 50/60 Hz |
|---|---|
| Rated load current (resistive load): | 10A total current |
| Power consumption: | up to 0.8W |
| Power output (resistive load): | 2500W for 240V AC |
| 1250W for 120V AC |
Exactly which is why you don’t want to confuse things with multiple power ratings. Just specify 10A. This is a bad idea:
I fold, we’re saying the same thing differently. No need to banter back and forth
Bottom line, understand what you’re doing or consult an electrician
Hi Piotr - how many amps were you trying to draw when the sonoffs went up in flames and were you using them on 120v or 230v ?
I was monitoring a fairly new model dryer, I guess it would have been max 10amps (but for longer periods, say 2 to 3 hours). Sonoff replaced my units but I don’t use them for this purpose anymore.
So you don’t understand the difference between switching inductive and resistive loads and you blame the device?
Good grief.
Your logic is not sound. If you drink too much water you will die. There is no label on water telling you how much you can drink before you die. Should we ban water?
The sonoff basic is rated for 10 amps. If you hook it to a 15 amp breaker and then run 13 amps through it your going to have a problem. There is no legislating stupidity away, and you shouldn’t take the capability away from people who do know what they are doing.
Im not quite sure what your picture is, but the newer versions of the sonoff basic use wires instead of thick traces. I think I read somewhere that keeps people from shocking themselves with mains as often. Although people should never have mains connected with the case off.
Then why use proper power plugs and jacks?
Just connect Line and Neutral of the appliance to Live and Neutral coming from Main, with bare hands.
If you are careful nothing happens.
That’s your logic
Why put safe rail in balcony, if you are careful you never trip and fall from 10th floor to the ground floor
Safety measure are there not for the very clever and attentive people that studied Electricity in school/University, but for the average user that has no clue of what may happen: and there are tons of those type of users as you can clearly notice even here in this forum.
Besides even the most intelligent/prepared/attentive user can get distracted, tired, and so on,… and get electrocuted .
I have a Sonoff POW and I’m wondering a) if this is one of the ones produced AFTER the issue with the fuse grips was identified and b) what I can do to use it to SAFELY monitor my washing machine. Any tips?!! I figure if I mount it in a metal box, it won’t be able to communicate with my AP anymore due to the Faraday effect?!
Thanks
buy a different product: a zwave neo coolcam plg+socket (20 euro), or the new shelly 1 power , a shelly 1 with power meter (15 euro),
There is one thing you can do with a Sonoff basic and it requires the use of a heavy craft knife,
.
That’s to cut the tracks both L&N so the relay contacts are tottally isolated, and leave at least a 4mm gap between the mains input and the tracks to the relay. Use what was the neutral track to the output for the other relay contact
Then just use it as a wifi controlled relay, and use a bit of common sense what you use it to switch.
its very useful for switching 50V at 1A .
If you want to switch kW , use the relay contacts to activate either a large relay or contactor.
BTW CE means China equipment, thats what they say when pressed why so much crap carries a CE mark and could never pass any type approval testing.
Just my opinion
Richard
I have several sonoff basics at home controlling lighting.
In the UK, since 1947 we use a magical device in all our plugs called a ‘fuse’. A fuse was necessary because of the way we choose to wire our homes in the UK in a ‘ring’ which means that the circuit breakers are typically a much higher capacity (eg. 32A) that could be drawn by a single appliance plugged into a single socket.
So, a UK plug has a fuse in line with the live wire to limit the current that can be drawn by the attached appliance. These range from a max of 13A down to to 3A. So a heater would have a 13A fuse, whilst a table lamp would be fitted with a 3A fuse.
The average current I switch with my sonoff basics is 0.025A (6W@240V), they are also fused…, I’m not worried… That said, there is no way I would use them to switch anything close to 10A…
Are you sure you have the correct decade, I can remember as a child in the 1950’s the round pin 15A and 5A plugs in use and on sale, and you could still buy bayonet to two pin 5A adaptors… Lighting circuits in the UK are fused at 5A, 13A square pin plugs came in to use in the late 1950’s, still being replaced in the next decade.
But dont put too much reliance on a fuse breaking just above its rated current, which the max
before breaking.
The last job I had before retirement I designed and built a pice of test equipment for surge testing. Basically to test the effects of mains surges and induced current from lightning to equipment plugged in to the domestic mains outlet socket.
The supply board mains fuse 100A was only blown once, yet I was taking up to 1000A for a few microseconds, enough to brown out one phase of the supply.
In fact testing had to be conducted after working hours as computers were crashing in nearby companies.
A fuse can be easily fitted to the Basic, there is enough room to cut the Live out track , both sides of the board and drill two 1mm holes spaced 21mm apart , and then with a 1mm piece of wire soldered top and bottom side of the pcb , solder a 20mm fuse in between the wires.
The contacts on the relay are NOT suitable for switching more than 5A at mains voltage.
And thats for a resistive load , for an inductive load reduce by at least 50%.
If you need to switch more, use the sonof as a relay to energise a solid state relay
Devices that are designed for switching AC loads at they switch at the zero crossing point
Not expensive, abour 50mm , 25mm deep and with 4 terminals.
Even at the expensive suppliers like RS they are $30, AND thats for a 50A relay.
Richard
The legislation changed in 1947, and ring mains became standard after that mainly due to copper shortages after the war. That said, my aunt was still using bakerlite round 3 pin plugs in the late 1980’s, and my wife’s uncle was still using gas lights in 1991 !
Blockquote
That’s to cut the tracks both L&N so the relay contacts are tottally isolated, and leave at least a 4mm gap between the mains input and the tracks to the relay. Use what was the neutral track to the output for the other relay contact
To take this further, you can power the sonoff with 5v DC directly (bypassing its own AC>DC conversion) from a USB supply. Then conerns of isolation are gone.
There is a DrZZZ video which shows how to fuse a sonoff.
I am surprised that I didn’t catch this thread sooner.
First, my qualification to discuss this topic.
Years ago, I was an industrial/residential electrician while taking Electrical Engineering at the University of Houston. I have a pretty good understanding of the National Electric Code which is pretty much used as the world-wide reference.
There is nothing wrong with the Sonoff Basic. I have several in my home including some inside wall boxes. I even use a couple as designed. I warrant that most of the users are clearly not.
The burning problem is not a design problem as much as a user problem. Itead uses Phoenix-style connectors (which I do consider a design error) which are rated to use 26 to 16 AWG Stranded wire. In the burned photo above, I see solid wire that appears to be 14 gauge- larger than the spec for the connector. What happens with solid wire in a connector designed for stranded wire (like the extension cord zip wire) is that they will not stay secure. They will loosen over time and that makes for a high-resistance which in turn generates heat. That’s when things start to melt.
A fuse would be redundant in this kind of device. Fuses are inserted to protect upstream circuits - not the device they are in. They are mainly for fire prevention. (From the NEC: “At the most basic level, these devices are inserted into the distribution system to “break,” isolate, or disconnect the circuit if there is an overload or short-circuit condition.”)
In my installations inside a fixture box, including two with 10 Amp space-heaters plugged in, I remove the Phoenix connectors and solder 8-inch long pigtail wires of 14 gauge stranded wire. I then just connect to the pigtails with standard wire-nuts and shove the Sonoff into the box. This eliminates the heat hazard of the Phoenix connectors and it makes wiring the Sonoff easier.
If you go to any of the Sonoff Basics you have in service for a few months, I guarantee that you will find that the screw terminals are slightly loose. (Remove the power first). If you tell me that the connector area is warm, I would not be the least surprised.
As I said above, I have a couple of Sonoff Basics that I am using as designed. These are on table lamps and a Christmas Tree extension cord. They are 16 gauge zip wires and I use the Phoenix connectors on the Sonoff. As soon as you use solid-core wire or put the Sonoff inside a fixture box, you are outside of the designed use.
Hope this helps.