does home automation deserve it's own thread? my wife & kids seem genetically predisposition to keeping lights on after they leave rooms. i've installed motion sensor switches in most closest and laundry room, but no one wants the light to shut off while taking a shower. it is entertaining to get the lights turn off on you while taking too long to shit in the one half bath.
we've had a wemo coffee maker for a few years, and probably turned it on via remote app maybe twice.
recently, my wife bought a few amazon echos and plug controllers. 3 echos in a few rooms of the house. from any of them, you can turn on or off the power switches, which we have to 3 lamps in the house. "alexa, turn on living room lights" or "alexa turn on living room light 1". also got a plug in to trigger coffee via voice, "alexa, trigger coffee" you still need to fill it night before, but you can now initiate it w/o getting into the app.
it's surprisingly cheap and easy to setup. we're not considering getting wall switches so we can control ceiling lights.