On 2/5/2014 5:16, Ignoramus13005 wrote:
On 2014-02-04, Kristian Ukkonen wrote:
On 2/4/2014 5:21, RogerN wrote:
For that I'd have to get to downstream wires, either get the current relay
in the wall or splice wires out to an electrical box. If I tried it at the
breaker, the heater kicking ON would cause the relay to turn ON, causing the
heater to go off, and back and forth. At the breaker, I can set it to turn
the heater OFF at 14A and not kick back on until it's below 4A, the 10A that
would allow my heater to run on reduced power, around 8A.

Use a timer relay triggered by the current sensing relay.
If current is too much, switch off heating for XX minutes.
Problem solved.

You got it exactly wrong (in my opinion, and with due respect).

The relay, to be used with a timer, should turn on the heater on XX
seconds after the other devices have been turned off.

We can agree to disagree.

In the OP case I would do it so that if the microwave etc. is
used and the current (microwave + heater) comes too big, the heater
will be switched off for 5 minutes (or such time). After 5 minutes,
if current demand is small enough, heater continues to heat. If
there is again too much current demand, the heater is off another
5 minutes. etc..

That is quite easy to do. Current sensing relay controlling timer relay
controlling heater contactor/relay. Also, the heater doesn't really
mind being off 5 minutes or 10 minutes. The thermal mass of the room is
big enough. It will lowpass-filter any short stopping of heating.

That's just how I would do it.
Many ways to do the same end effect, I agree.