4 ms·

Good concerns. One thing to add here is that often times in household HVAC system the thermostat relay doesn't handle the current for the heating/cooling eleme

• analog31 12y ago
  Yes, that's a good point. I'd still be cautious because a bug in your program could make your system run amok. And it could go either way with a home furnace: Shutting down during the winter could be as bad as running full-on, due to the danger of pipes freezing. At the very least, thinking through a failure mode analysis is a good mental exercise -- especially for folks who are accustomed to living in the world of pure software.
• foobarian 12y ago
  Interesting that you mention HVAC. I have had my furnace control board fail last month. The failure was in the power relay gating the power to the blower motor (which is a pretty hefty 1kW load). The relay had melted to a lump of charred plastic, and the circuit board around the relay pins turned into a hole. I guess no matter which way it failed there would've been no serious consequences (blower motor stuck on) so I classified the incident as "neat." :-)