Wireless Relay Closure

Probably an X10 type of signal through the house wiring.

Something "professional" or "just a kludge"?

Presumably, the relay remains engaged as long as the 110VAC circuit is powered?

Consequences if the relay drops out (momentarily) when the signal is interrupted or interfered?

Zlink stuff?

Theres I/O so you can have feedback that the remote end responded. Pricey but...

Cheers

Home G-job, but professional.

I can cope with that. ...Jim Thompson

How about something like:

I know the switch side is battery operated, and don't know how the switch position is sensed. But my thoughts were leaning towards remote wirelessly operated lights.

Reliable wireless is an oxymoron. There's always a way to make wireless not operate reliably. If you must have reliability, run some wires through the house and install a solid state relay. If that's too much, invest in something that uses the power lines for communications. Make sure you get something that's bidirectional, so that you can get status information from the remote device. Search the various "home automation" web sites for suitable devices.

You can get wireless relays on eBay. Lots to choose from: The problem with all of these is that "other side of the house" implies that you're going through many walls, most of which contain aluminum foil backed insulation, concrete, or other RF impervious material. You didn't disclose the distances involved, or the number of walls, but I would expect problems with this approach.

X10 is supposed to be pretty unreliable actually. It is subject to noise and I believe the protocol has no mechanism to deal with this.

I was suggesting that he roll his own with the same "type" of signal, meaning some higher frequency through the mains. The transmitter would transmit continuously and noise would be transient so it could be filtered out.

IME, X10 either works or it doesn't. I've had it work perfectly in some houses and be useless in others. There are other technologies (not using X10 signaling) on the market now, as well. Some use a combination of carrier current and ISM band RF, in a mesh sort of topology. I don't follow this stuff much anymore, so I don't know what sort of sensors and actuators are available beyond simple lighting and control.

Years ago, I would have used the Linear brand of tone modulated garage door opener remote & receiver. Some that I repaired and retuned would operate almost two city blocks. I would hook the receiver to my front porch light, and walk down the street tuning it on to test the distance. Some were used by fire departments, and they wanted to open the doors reliabbly from a half block away, so the could pull right in to the firehouse without stopping on a busy street.

The digital, rollover code units have a very limited range, by comparison.