Hello, I am new to the world of electronics and Arduino and what brought me to this point is that it came to my attention that I could possibly automate my indoor garden with the use of the Arduino. Before I wish to delve into learning the programming/coding, I am doing a lot of research first to allow me to comprehend the kinds of circuits I would need to build to effect an automated indoor garden with internet remote operability. I have a generalized understanding of how to manage and control the plumbing aspect of my garden, but when I get to the HID (High Intensity Discharge) lights, the waters get a little muddy.
Obviously one's first suggestion would be to use relays to control the AC circuits that feed these HID lights. BTW, I will be powering a 400watt (MH) Metal Halide bulb/ballast combo and three 600watt (HPS) High Pressure Sodium combos. When delving into the topic of using DC controlled AC relays that will drive heavy inductive loads, the Electromagnetic Interference becomes a sizable opponent to overcome. Though there are a few ways around this, it seems to me that the price tag to combat this will slightly increase, but more importantly the electronic circuitry gets much more complicated, and I assume the code to run such circuitry will equally be more complicated.
Would it then just be easier and safer to mount a servo motor to turn a light switch on or off? A higher rated light switch could be used to control the AC load and both on and off are fixed positions on the switch which equates to the servo only needing to be used twice per 24 hour period, to turn the switch on, then turn it off hours later. Unless I am overlooking something, I imagine there would be no chance of having to deal with any of the known problems associated with using relays to control larger loads.