Hello all,
I wanted to share a solution I found to a problem. For years my wife and I used an old electric blanket with at first our old X10 setup and then our Zwave and Vera. We had it setup to preheat the bed each night. Well the blanket no longer functions. All new heating blankets use a “soft switch” to turn them on and thus cannot be controlled with an appliance module like we use to. The module can turn them off but not on without something depressing the switch. I was thinking about hacking a contactor module where the micro switch is but I found a better solution.
After extensive looking I found a single blanket that can be controlled by an appliance module. It still has the required auto shutoff after x amount of time that modern blankets have but rather then having a soft switch it has a rocker switch. If you set the blanket into the on position it works. Here are the details on the blanket
Biddeford brand Analog Electric Blanket
http://www.biddefordblankets.com/products/analog-electric-blanket.asp
Can be purchased at Target or Amazon
http://www.target.com/p/biddeford-micro-plush-heated-blanket/-/A-14127629#prodSlot=medium_1_5&term=Biddeford
Figured it might help someone else.