Is it necessary to put a snubber on a 120 VAC 1500w heating element? I plan to control this element with Arduino isolated by an Opto Coupler. Anyone have a favorite Opto Coupler and Triac for this purpose?
Thank You
jarrod0987:
Is it necessary to put a snubber on a 120 VAC 1500w heating element?
No - and not only that, if there happened to be a fan connected in parallel with the heating element, the heating element would be the "snubber" for the motor.
jarrod0987:
I plan to control this element with Arduino isolated by an Opto Coupler. Anyone have a favourite Opto Coupler and Triac for this purpose?
Do it properly. Go get a SSR.
I did look briefly at SSR's. I have a decent amount of experience with EMR's but none with SSR's. I could not find much info that made sense to me on how to use them. Can I assume I still need optoisolator for use with SSR?
Could you please explain why this is preferable to a Triac?
Thank You
Update. I am reading up on them now. I found some stuff in playground that makes more sense to me. It looks easy to use. Better then building a circuit. Seems pretty expensive though 
Triac/Opto Coupler is much cheaper. Why do you suppose that is?
jarrod0987:
Seems pretty expensive though
If you have a big stock of parts and all at your disposal, right now, and you discount any investment in the build process (layout, stripping and soldering, putting it in a box, and all that) then you have a certain point. If you enjoy all that then do it, but if you don't know what you're doing then don't do it.
On the other hand, the module is all built and likely has "approvals" (UL, CE, TUV, etc), and it's ready to go.