On Mon, 4 Feb 2008 18:31:53 -0000, "N Cook" wrote:

:James Sweet wrote in message
:news:bbIpj.2812$FW3.973@trndny03...
:
: "default" wrote in message
: ...
: I was at the hardware store shelling out $20 for an "infinite range
: control." It is a proportioning control for an electric range burner.
: It is primitive. A small 3 W heating element warms a bimetallic
: leaf which moves a set of contacts, which opens the connection to the
: range element and modulates the power.
:
: I'm thinking it is stupid to keep replacing these things . . . I go
: through one a year and its a hassle to change out or repair a broken
: one.
:
: What's the consensus on getting an ordinary $3 lamp dimmer and putting
: a 40 amp triac on it and using that for element control? Anyone see
: why it shouldn't work or what to look, look out for?
:
: I've got a half dozen 40A 600 V triacs already mounted to heat sinks
: that I got for free. Plan A: would be to just open the lamp dimmer
: and wire the Triac in place of the one inside, and mount it outboard
: on its heatsink. Perhaps changing the size of the phase shift
: resistor to accommodate 240 instead of 120.
:
: Plan B: But how about using the 120V lamp dimmer as-is? I would just
: use it to trigger the heatsink mounted triac. Any idea if that
: could/should work?
:
: Any downside to using a phase control element instead of
: proportioning? Would it cause my power bill to go up?
:
: I figure I could do it safely.
: --
:
:
: Try it, see what happens, most range burners are 240V which may or may not
: be ok for the dimmer, but so long as you keep an eye on it I don't think
: anything too bad will happen.
:
:
:
:
:Add a snubber over the triac ?

Probably not required since the load is purely resistive.