Hello;
I have a 2000 W heating radiator in my bathroom (basically, it's a big resistor that gets orange hot and radiates most of the heat out). The problem is that when this device is cold, its resistance is much lower than at its intended operating temperature, and so it blows the fuse almost every time I turn it on.
However, once I have reset the fuse and got the radiator working, i can switch it off for quite a few minutes and safely turn it on again - it's still hot enough to have a resistance the fuse can live with.
I tried the obvious solution using a double switch and a diode:
In this way, I can switch it on at reduced power first (left switch), but it still does blow the fuse, although a bit less often.
I would like to replace the diode with some kind of thyristor circuit that would cut the "reduced power" even more than the diode does. Preferably a circuit that is small enough to fit into the wall-mounted switch housing like the diode did, and without a need to connect to the other lead of the mains (the top wire in my schematic) so I don't have to ruin the paintwork on the wall.
I am not sure how to get at it. I did study electronics a quarter of a century ago, but it was medical electronics so I didn't learn very much about power devices