To answer the original question there are very capable SSRs I am running Opto22 45a SSRs on my spa heater that is basically a 5500w water heater element . They can be driven directly from CMOS but I usually put a little silicon transistor in there (2n2222 sort of thing)
You can do a lot of cool things with SSRs and they fit nicely in the square sided handy boxes.
