Power control

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A number of technologies have evolved for using the power wiring to turn devices attached to the power line on and off, monitoring attached devices, and similar activities. A collective term for one set of technologies is smart buildings[?]. It should be mentioned that as of 2002 smart building[?] technologies have been less than an overwhelming success. Problems include reliability, cost, questions about how great the need is, and the fact that many smart building[?] tasks such as turning on a lamp at dusk can be performed equally well by simpler, cheaper, and often more reliable, mechanical or electro-mechanical devices. The best known smart building[?] technologies are X10 and Cebus[?].

See also domotics, universal plug-and-play, distributed generation.