IPMI is nice in professional environments - but at home ? - takes also significant power... and $$
Significant power??? Do you have number to back that up? I can't imagine ipmi using more than a coupleof watts. It is definitely handy at home if you have a headless server. A lot of people on this forum don't have an extra monitor leave connected to their server. I can think of a large number of people on this forum who would've had their problem solved easily if they had ipmi. I absolutely love it at home.