[Dave @ Nov 30th 2006 11:02PM]

I think that a great deal of what home automation controllers offer is for when you're *not* home. Randomized lights, automatic blinds to save energy, being able to check on status of secondary properties, alerts for power outages, floods, etc. They can track the calendar and daylight savings time. There's quite a bit that doesn't involve dimming the lights to watch a movie. But I like that too.

[MrTea @ Dec 1st 2006 5:25AM]

Well I for one really enjoy setting up and using my HA stuff.

In the morning, I wake up to a random song from my music collection. When the song finishes, my favourite radio station comes on (or, at the moment because I'm English and it's the Ashes, I have that coming on instead).

Meanwhile the bedside light comes on, dimmed at first, then gets brighter, followed by the main light.

The coffee machine downstairs switches on automatically, if I don't feel like getting out of the bed, the smell of fresh coffee usually helps.

At night, if we get out of bed to go to the loo, a dimmed light comes on to show the way.

Also, it can save electricity, when I walk around my house, lights come on, but then go off again after a period of time if no-one is in the room. Great if (like me) you always forget to turn lights off.