Appliance Remote Control

One of the basic tasks in many home automation systems is controlling power to appliances. These could be lights, a heater, an exhaust fan, or just about anything else that runs on mains power. The problem, of course, is that it’s dangerous to mess with mains-level power directly and you may even be in violation of your local building code if you don’t have the necessary qualifications. This project uses a general-purpose appliance remote control that can be obtained from a local hardware store. It can be easily modified to link it to an Arduino for software control of devices around your house, without having to touch any mains-level wiring.