power mosfets for switching

I'm interested in making a smarter light switch for a few rooms in the house. The switch will be controlled by a computer somewhere in the house well away from the switch, and the smart switch module will be on a network. What's the best way to actually turn the 115V/60Hz on and off safely and reliably ?

I was thinking I should detect the next zero crossing and switch a relay so as to reduce arcing on the contacts.

Can you get power mosfets in small packages that can handle like 5A through them, operate them in an on-off switching manner, and not care about detecting a zero crossing time ?

Reply to
Zeno
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Reply to
josh lawton

SCRs are more normally used for this application.

Since you'll need safety isolation it might be simplest to use 'solid state relays' which are a pre-packaged solution that just need a low votage low current DC input to function.

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Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

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