Imagine you've bought the mansion on your lottery wishlist, and you're living the dream. But you're in the bottom storey pool room, and you can see that 3 levels above no-one's watching the tv. With a simple click of a button on your iPhone app, you turn it off, and settle back to relax.

This kind of futuristic living has been the dream of many companies, and the technology has been around for years since the X10 system. But it's never been easy or reliable enough - until now, when the Belkin WeMo came along.

I've already talked in an earlier article about how effective I've found these wi-fi plugs to be, but since then I've had the WeMo Light Switches fitted, and they've made an exciting difference.

The boxes in the photo below show the eight WeMo switches I have bought and installed to control my house so far.

My WeMo collection.

It all started because our 12 year-old home was not fitted out with any home automation system.

I needed a retro fit. But the problem was that - until now - there hasn't been any system reliable and easy enough to use.

I'm delighted with WeMo and how it's made our living easier. Here's an example of its power...

In the past I used to turn on our front door lights when it got dark, and then off again in the morning when I came up for breakfast. Sometimes I forgot, and so I had several 50w halogen downlights expensively burning up my power during the day.

So I had my electrician install a Wemo Switch to replace the interior front door light switch. There it is below on the right.

Now, the beauty of this switch is that not only can I turn it on and off from anywhere in the house - or around the world - with my iPhone, but I can also set it to switch on or off by time.

I wanted the front door lights to be turned on at sunset, and off again at sunrise. A straight timer switch is not the answer, since the sun does its thing at different times of the year.

Enter Wemo!

The WeMo Switch now checks out the net for the location I'm in, then sets the time differently each day.

I've watched the lights switch on from 8.35pm a few weeks ago, to 8.05pm last night. As winter approaches these times will change progressively to match the season.

Now, you don't have to be a lottery winner to use these lights and benefit from the power savings. They're relatively cheap to buy - around $50 each - and cost nothing to run.

At the moment I use the wall light switches to control my outside lights at different parts of the house. And I also have plug-in switches to control other areas of our home. For example:

- In the winter I can turn my electric blanket and bedroom wall heater on from my iPhone when I'm in any other part of the house. Our house is quite large with several levels, so this saves a lot of walking. Since I don't go to bed at a regular time, I can do this 30 minutes before I decide to retire for the night. 

- I can turn our lounge tv on and off. If my wife and I leave the room and forget to turn it off, I can see from my iPhone app whether it's still on, and with one click, it's off.

- I can turn on several lamps beforehand in the rooms I'm about to visit, so I don't enter a darkened room. 

- If I want, I can have a device turn off when I enter a room with the WeMo Motion Switch. For example, if I had turned the heater on in my bedroom earlier by my iPhone or by time, the Switch will sense when I enter the room and turn it off automatically.

There's dozens of other ways these switches can make life easier, and the best thing - you don't need to win the lottery to buy them. And every day I can't wait till nightfall to see them all in operation.