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As a programmer who used to like taking things apart and playing with solder in school seeing these kinds of things fill me with enthusiasm and joy - and then I remember I need a wired power supply or a battery and suddenly enthusiasm is gone :( I wish we had wireless power transfer - for these kinds of things losses wouldn't even matter.

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Yeah, powering stuff sucks. With ESP8266 you've pretty much eliminated the need for a data line for home automation, but you still need a power line.

My current solution (to be deployed in a week or two, after I get home): $2 Chinese fast charger with 4 USB ports (2x 2A, 2x 1A). I had a chance to test them personally before buying; they're decent enough for the task and cheap enough to buy a bunch. You can then use either an Arduino ($2-3 with USB cable) and ESP8266, or NodeMCU + $3 USB cable.

Got a link to the fast charger?

It's this model:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/4-Port-2A-USB-Fast-Charger-Mo...

The price on Aliexpress is stunningly high though; I bought it for something like $2-$3 in person. I guess this is one of those cases (I've noticed a few), where Chinese just leave the same price numeric value but change the unit from CNY to USD.

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