I’ve been running Home Automation with control extended via the internet and to mobile devices in the home for a few years based on the x10 standard.

My equipment is predominantly winplus stuff that I bought dirt cheap when Bunnings dumped all of their stock a few years ago.

Controlled by the setup are:

• Living room lamp
• Bedroom lamp
• Entertainment Unit (to shut off power for all equipment to avoid using vampire power)
• External lighting
• Insect repellant (mozzie zapper)
• Irrigation system
• Home alarm system

There are RF remote controls, however my Home Server also controls all elements; the Home Server also extends control to IP devices either on local network or via the internet.

I have written an iPhone compatible webpage to control all elements, which uses filtering security to provide easy access to all controls when the phone is using the local network, but needs an PIN entered to access controls from external networks.