Also, assuming reasonable values for the weight of your wife and the power draw of your appliance LEDs, if she has to bend down to unplug an appliance she burns

Also, assuming reasonable values for the weight of your wife and the power draw of your appliance LEDs, if she has to bend down to unplug an appliance she burns through an appreciable fraction of the power savings. For example, if she's 50 kilos above the waist, and the appliance LED draws 50 milliwatts, then the energy she burns straightening up after bending down 1 meter is equivalent to nearly 3 hours of leaving it on: (50 kilograms ⋅ 9.81 (m/s^2) ⋅ 1 meter) / 50 mW = 2.725 hours Of course, your wife doesn't run on pure electricity - the energy she expends probably took a very inefficient route to get to her. On the other hand, depending on what she eats and where you live, agriculture may still be a greener form of energy than wall current. If she's vegan and your power comes from coal, it might be worth it; if she eats beef and your power is hydroelectric, it definitely isn't. Easy solution: install switches at waist height. But be sure to factor in all that extra resistance from the longer power wires!