Some people may consider my fondness for home automation to be a frivolous pursuit.
Well, let me tell you this…
Tonight, as I left the excellent Chinese take-away a few miles from my house, accompanied by this evening’s dinner, I was able to turn on the hotplate in the kitchen at home, so that by the time we got back, the plates were nice and warm and ready to hit the table.
Let nobody say humanity is not reaping the benefits of scientific progress…
A small section of the touch control panel in my kitchen.
American here; to me a hotplate is a small electric stove, most familiar from chemistry class. I also have a small drawer under my oven for keeping dishes warm (usually including food, but prewarming flatware for takeout is a good idea.)
Do you have a heating element built into your cupboard, or is your hotplate more like my warming drawer? Do you keep the plates there all the time or does this take some forethought?
No, this does, alas, take some forethought; I had to put the plates out before departure. Fixing that might take a bit more robotics than I currently have planned 🙂 The main advantage of this is not having to leave it switched on for an extended period while you’re absent.
And even without the plates, actually having the hotplate hot is useful in itself, because we then unplug it, move it to the table and use it to keep the food warm.
It’s like a small one of these.