Lefty, please forgive me for reading into your post more than was meant. I'm just used to having to deal with adolescence who know "everything" (I volunteer with the middle school students at my church). I will try to better follow my own advice and assume good intentions in the future!
Draythomp, I'm glad to hear you also share my dislike of the x10 system. I simply want more than they can ever give me. Relationships like that never work. The reason I would like to use powerline instead of RF is because I do plan to use it to transmit large amounts of data as well. My goal with this system is for it to be all inclusive, meaning that I want to be able to do much more than simply automate my lights. I plan on incorporating every aspect of my house into this system: the intercom system, the security system (motion sensors/cameras/door and window sensors), the phones (VoIP), the surround sound, my modified roomba (via Bluetooth), the kitchen appliances, my pool vacuum, my jacuzzi, my sprinklers, my air conditioner and humidifier, my gas fireplace or even my grill, backing up my computer onto an external hard drive that is unplugged when not in use, and a bunch of other stuff that I have written down at the office and not with me now, everything is going to be controlled via powerline communications.
All of the sensors (mostly ac/humidity) will update the program hourly so that I can track changes and try to cut costs. I will also have the switches and outlets send their on/off status, however they will probably only do so when their status changes. There really isn't a need for each switch to tell me every five minutes that it is off. The only time it will change its status is either when it is remotely told to do so or when someone manually "flips" (or pushes) the switch. Ideally I would like to have some sort of touch screen display that can show a floor plan of the house and the locations of each switch/outlet. On this display all of the switches/outlets in the "off" position will show grey and all of those in the "on" position will show electric blue. I will be able to control all of these from the display and can choose to turn off entire rooms (but now I am getting into the programming aspect of the project). I absolutely love DIY projects, however, I hate the fact that they look like DIY projects. The control panel(s) should blend in with the house and serve multiple functions. Perhaps they will include web browsers. Perhaps they will be equipped to allow for video calls so as to allow me talk to relatives or friends while cooking up dinner (which will not be automated as I greatly enjoy cooking).
Anyway, I continue to have ideas even as I begin to pull together the necessary supplies for this project. As you all can probably tell from what I have said in the last couple posts, I have a tendency to take a cool idea and blow it up into a huge ginormous idea that will takes lots of time and money. Maybe once I get the plans together and have something more concrete I'll get onto kickstarter... hmmm....