What's available to remotely switch a power circuit?

[Chris Green]

We want a set of sockets (powering mostly low power things like lamps, PCs, phone chargers, etc.) which can be turned on/off remotely by somrthing like a switch by the door. Thus one would be able to leave the room and 'turn off' using a swithch at the door.

It doesn't need to be long range, just across a room and I'd really prefer something mains powered rather than battery powered. We don't want to have to select what to turn off either, it just needs an on/off switch (with specific on and off positions, need to know it's off) to turn off all of the sockets on the particular circuit.

The Quinetic 16A remote is the best I can find so far but it's not quite guaranteed to maintain it's on/off positions. Is there not some sort of remote control switch that would look and feel like a normal light switch, always 'up for off/down for on' (in the UK)?

[GB]

A switched spur exactly meets your needs, but you'd need to do quite a lot of new wiring to install it.

I'm quite surprised to hear that Qinetic switches don't work 100%.

[Andy Bennet]

If you have wi-fi available then you could choose from a whole range of smart plugs and control them via mobile app from anywhere, with feedback. Argos have the tp-link ones for £20 at the moment, and I have a couple for controlling things various and can vouch for quality.

Andy

[Jethro_uk]

Conversely I am totally unsurprised. I wouldn't trust *any* consumer- grade wireless equipment. WiFi, bluetooth, proprietary zappers. None has been 100% reliable. I can see where the money goes on military kit, if they have to be 100% reliable.

[Robert]

The Quinetic Remote Socket Adaptor with a 4/6 way plug board really is your best bet . By "guaranteed to maintain on/off position" do you mean 0% chance of it being switched by external interference ? If so I dont think any remote switch is. If you mean the ON and OFF positions of the switch occasionally reverse, then I have had this happen with a 2 gang light switch very occasionally. Its usually easy to remedy - put the switch in the required OFF position, remove power to the remote adaptor or circuit being controlled , switch power back on. Another way is to remove the switch out of range and set to correct position.

[Martin Brown]

The other possibility is to use one of the smart slave N way sockets with a master socket intended for TV/PC so that one off all off.

The snag with all of the ethernet smart devices is that every now and then they get screwed up and/or fib about their status. Usually nothing that cannot be fixed by power cycling and they are mostly fine, but every now and then they either fail to come on when commanded or stay on when told to switch off despite the mimic diagram showing them off.

Depending on how paranoid you are most of the stuff on IOT can be pretty easily hacked by anyone motivated to do so. They are not 100% reliable but they are probably around the 98% mark if you choose wisely.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Can you put all of them on the same circuit? Via multi-way extensions, etc? Otherwise it's going to cost you a lot in individual controllers.

I have a couple of plug in remote controlled sockets. Rated at 13 amps. Both work from the same remote control. Used for Xmas lighting.

BTW, not a good idea to power down PCs etc by simply switching them off?

[Brian Gaff]

Of course one could use a relay on the lighting circuit as unless you want to be in the dark if the switch is already there, using a relay should be fine. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes the abort switch on launching a missile that failed could be very expensive! Brian

[dennis]

I haven't seen that with the TP link ones. The mimic works when you press the manual button too. And Alex can show the states.

You can always use Sonoff stuff which you can load custom firmware on if you want to.

IME well over 98%.

[John Rumm]

IME military kit is not necessarily any more reliable. All you can usually hope for is it will work at a wider temperature range, and be designed to let you hose the remains of the previous operator off it with no ill effects!

[charles]

and they are allowed to use leaded solder!

[tabbypurr]

Neither of those have any truth IME. And yes I did work with such kit.

NT

[Jeff Layman]

+1. BTDT

[Chris Green]

By 'remote' I meant no wiring between switch and controlled circuit. Yes, obviously I could simply wire things to do what we want.

They do in the main, however they are just 'toggles', click the switch and the remote circuit will change state, there's no guarantee of 'up = off'.

[Chris Green]

Way, way too complicated. We don't walk around with our mobiles here because there's no coverage anyway, but compareed with 'push this switch to turn off' any sort of mobile app is a dead loss.

[Chris Green]

Exactly my problem with the Quinetic switches. If there's no obvious way to tell if you've turned everything off then there's a (small) risk that you may have turned everything on! I know it's easy to reset them but you have to know which way they're working before you know they need resetting.

[Jeff Layman]

What's the difficulty with just plugging in a light (or anything which has a power-on light) to see if the power is on or not?

[Chris Green]

It rather spoils the simplicity of hitting a switch by the door as you go out knowing that you've turned everything off.

[Jeff Layman]

Apologies - I wasn't clear. I meant having a low-power "Indicator" light permanently plugged in to a spare socket to see whether or not the power is on.