I've long been interested in "home automation" stuff, so I'll give you a quick example of what I have at my house now that can't be done with timers/motion sens

I've long been interested in "home automation" stuff, so I'll give you a quick example of what I have at my house now that can't be done with timers/motion sensors from the hardware store. There's keypad in the entrance to the kitchen, with buttons labelled "Bright" "Dim" and "All off". If you press Bright, all of the lights (sink, under-cabinet, range hood, and island) turn on 100%. Dim sets just the under-cabinet lights are on at 50% and island is 10%. Without this keypad, you have to walk to 3 different switches on opposite sides of the room. There's also a keypad by the front door. It has an 'all off' button which is great when we're leaving, and as we also walk by it on the way upstairs, handy when we're going to bed. The front door keypad also has a "Garage" button. It lights up red if the garage door is open (as we can't see the door from anywhere inside the house). Press it and it'll toggle the door to open/close. That stuff is just simple scenes, but I also have some more complex things.. The outside lights go to 20% from dusk until midnight, then turn off after midnight. On top of that, at any time between sunset and sunrise, if the garage door is open, or if the outside motion detector sees motion they go to 100%, and once the door is shut or no motion is seen for a few minutes, they return to previous level. At sunset, if none of the lights in the house are on, one of the lights in the kitchen and one of the lights in the living room turn on (to make it look like someone is home). At ~midnight, if only the one kitchen light and living room light are on (and nothing else has been adjusted, indicating someone is home), turn the lights off. At sunrise, turn off all lights. (This used to be 3am until we had a baby, then it was annoying because, well, crying baby + preparing bottle + 3am + lights suddenly turning off = ..not good). At some point I will also set up a motion sensor in the front hall (or maybe a door open sensor), so if the outside motion is triggered followed by the inside motion (or door opening), the inside front hall light turns on. A bit tricky, since I don't want to happen if I'm just walking around the house (or leaving). Is any of this game-changing? Not really. It's interesting to me, it's not overly expensive (especially as I have built this up over time), and it's a nice albeit minor quality-of-life thing. Btw, I can control this from a PC/phone, although I basically never do (the keypad/switch on the wall is always going to be faster). I could also set it up to work via internet, but I don't, because 1) there's an attack vector and extra security to worry about, 2) adjusting the lights while I'm not home is pointless, 3) I believe a key to home automation is the automation part. If I have to control it manually, it's by definition not automated.