relay to control appliance power

Hi forum! I'm looking where to find a relay too switch on/off a house appliance using 220V and rather low current (for example a light or a small machine) by using a 5V control voltage with max. 30 mA current. Is there a relay with such values? Can I use a microcontroller circuit outputing these values (5V vs. 0V) to use in an application like this??
Can you point me into a relay model i can use for this??
thanks in advance for any answer and sorry for the newbie question (new in electronics, just trying hard...)
Ivan
(ivan.franco@ydreams.com)

 

[nbucska]

sIMPLEST TO USE SOLID STATE RELAY - if want exact type
and schematics, send current and FAX# <nbucska@pcperipherals.com>

 

[RayRogers]

Hopefully somebody will suggest a &quot;off the shelf&quot; commercial module. In case they don't I can try to help later. If you start trying to do it yourself use an optically triggered SCR or TRIAC module rated for this apllication. There are serious safety and reliability concerns. For instance you can expect 4kv pulse to come down the line every month or so. The actual timing will depend upon location, but count on it happening once in a while. In fact you will be getting much larger pulses occasionally.
The point is that you have to use parts rated for this application. I personally have found that X-10 modules fill most applications. These are cheap ($15) and work by power line signaling from a controler.

Ray