Thanks for the fast reply. As far as heating goes, I would like a space heater that pretty much heats up a small confined space. I plan to power this off the regular AC wall socket at 120Vrms and 60Hz. However, For some components I will be using a 12V dc power supply and then using a voltage regulator to reduce the voltage to 5V for some components. I plan to use the 12V to run a stepper motor (controlled by a PIC16F88 and a L293D stepper driver) that can oscillate the unit and possibly drive another motor to run a fan. The 5V is mainly for led's, maybe a fan motor, and possibly a buzzer. If I could get the resistance heating to run off of 12 volts, that would be ideal for I would only need one power source. As far as the dimmer, would this be possible with DC? I would like to be able to make the heater be hot, mild, cold etc. And if this dimmer worked, could I hook it up to a thermoelectric chip? If anyone knows of a more efficient way for space heating resistors (ie big power resistor or something) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any input on this matter and your time in assisting me.
Jonathan