Using the Mains Switch Widget to switch 4 mains powered appliances

The other day I had the following query regarding the Mains Switch Widget. "I am looking into a project involving my Raspberry Pi I wish to complete which will allow me to automate the habitat of my Bearded Dragon's vivarium including temperature control and lighting. I am in need of some way to control the ON/OFF status of a few 240v devices which would usually plug into a standard, UK power outlet." Well - below are a couple of ways of doing this.

Switching appliances ON and OFF remotely by e-mail with the Raspberry Pi and Mains Switch Widget #2

Switching appliances ON and OFF using e-mails. This part of this multi-part post looks at logging in and reading e-mails from a gmail account and using the subject field to switch an appliance ON and OFF.

Switching appliances ON and OFF remotely by e-mail with the Raspberry Pi and Mains Switch Widget #1

Having designed the Mains Switch Widget, my next challenge was to turn appliances ON and OFF from outside the house. I investigated Twitter and texts as a means of doing this but finally settled on using e-mails to control the appliances. This multi part post outlines the various steps along the way.

Mains Switch Widget for Home Automation

The Mains Switch Widget allows the user to switch 230V or 110V mains ON and OFF to mains powered devices from microcontrollers like the PIC and the Arduino or from single board computers like the Raspberry Pi and the Beaglebone. All the safety requirements are designed-in to prevent any faults resulting in a fire. A plastic enclosure is supplied to prevent the user from accidentally touching the mains voltage.