My wish list for home automation

Being an eco-aware gadget freak is a bit of a trial at times. When it
comes to electricity and power consumption, I have an eco-angel on one
shoulder telling me to cut down, and a gadget devil on the other which
just wants more more more! My bete noire at the moment is my wireless
network. This sits happily under the sofa in an always-on arrangement,
which is wonderfully handy for two reasons: first, it's always on, and
second, it uses up a couple of inaccessible power points (and the
position of the cable modem limits it a bit anyway). Unfortunately,
such profligacy gets my eco-angel wagging reproachful fingers.



The obvious answer (to a gadget freak) is a remote control power point.
These are relatively cheap and come with a remote, so I could turn the
whole caboodle off at the mains without having to crawl around under
the sofa. But it's another remote, which is, well,
just dull.



The thing is, if it were just the network then I could probably live
with it. But I have another little domestic bete noire which I'd like
to be able to fix. The stairwell outside my door is very dark, and
although I have an external light, the switch for it is inside the
flat, which isn't very handy when you're fumbling with your keys in the
pitch black corridor. So, I'd like to be able to turn this light on
from outside. Again, a remote would be handy, but I'm not about to take
a remote with me when I have a bluetooth enabled
mobile phone and a PDA which does bluetooth and wifi!



So. First off, the whole point is to save electricity, so an always-on
PC home automation system is ludicrous. What I want is this:

1. Turn on my outside light at a command from my phone (or PDA);


2. Turn on my wireless network (which can be done just by turning it on at the mains) via a similar signal.


3. To have the ability to turn off mains AC sockets. My life seems
   to run on batteries, which is great except for the chargers that I
   absentmindedly leave plugged in when they're not charging anything!
   Turning these off without bending down would be a boon.

That's it. Doesn't seem like an outrageous list to me. But can I find
anything which will do it? No. Home automation systems seem to assume
that it's okay to lug another remote around with you, which just
irritates me when I have two devices perfectly capable of performing
this function.