Ever leave the house, battle the buses and reach work or school only to discover you left the iron on? Rather than travel all the way home, you could just ring using an invention by Stephen McGuinness (15), from Ballinteer Community School, Dundrum, Dublin.
Stephen, a third-year student, envisages that appliances at home could be connected to a control box and it would take only a quick phone call to disable the socket powering the iron, saving an annoying journey home.
By dialling in a PIN number for the different appliances, the heating or the curling tongs could be switched off or on and the grill could be powered up to have dinner ready and waiting when you got in.
Stephen's project includes a small model of circuit boards connected to lights. The controller is designed to recognise the tone of the PIN number. But he said the system might also be used to turn on the video to record television programmes or to switch on the central heating before getting home.
An invention of an environmental conservation nature demonstrates how wave power could be harnessed to generate electricity.
Robert Casey and Tadhg Pearson, both 16, from St Eunan's College, in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, designed a stainless steel container in which they stood a bottomless plastic bottle with a pipe coming out of the top. The pipe in turn is connected to a small turbine.
When the container is filled with water and waves are created, the air in the top of the bottle compresses, causing the turbine to spin. Robert Casey, who is in transition year, said the idea could be a useful tool in 35 years' time when fossil fuels have run out.
A local company helped them to build the stainless steel equipment that demonstrates their wave-powered model.
And if the harnessing of wave energy isn't enough for environmentalists, Ronan Roachford's hybrid electric car should impress them. Ronan (13), from Jesus and Mary's Secondary School, Gortnor Abbey, Co Mayo, designed a small model car which contains two engines - one battery-powered and the other powered by gas (methane or propane).
The gas-powered engine boosts the battery should you be out for a spin in the country and your powers runs out.
The car features solar panels on the roof and bonnet to conserve even more energy.