Home automation has always been kind of a holy grail when it comes to technology, especially any kind of automation that you can perform remotely. The only problem is that up until now this has been pretty difficult to do and usually involved timers and other ways to control your household appliances.
Now with the proliferation of smartphones and a world of apps, along with some pretty creative developers this is changing and we are starting to see a lot more of controlling your household appliances and fixtures via the web.
British Gas is one company that is delving into this area big time as anyway to provide their customers with ways to save money when it comes to electricity and gas is a big selling point. Their newest venture, following up on the whole smart meter build out that is occurring in many countries (I know we have smart meters in our apartment building for each of the apartments), is the development of a smartphone app that will let you remotely control your home heating as well as be able to switch off any equipment that has been left plugged in or turned on.
British Gas says the app will be available to their customers in 2012 if the trials currently underway continue to show good results.
via Pocket-lint