How do you make your home smarter with Loxone?

[@smaterhomes]

main support i have as a dealer is let your dealer supply and install margins on it are low and will give the buffer for them while allowing the warranty and changes to be feasible. It is a bullet proof product but the programmer/ company needs some kind of incentive or if it was me you will pay way more for program and have service charges after installation even for remote connected changes. You may have the knowledge but they're the certified trained dealer. I still give access to the config but the devices are always in our name.

[@JurassicJungle]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I am buying the vast majority of equipment from the installer. He was ok with me using the very small number of parts I purchased to make my decision. It’s a pretty big investment for me. I am paying way more in services than I have spent on all my previous automation projects over the last 20 years but I want the foundations to be rock solid and reliable. Obviously there is no warranty on the handful of devices I have but I am happy I went that route. I had planned to use significant numbers of Loxone rgbw spots but while they are a really great product they didn’t quite work for me. I do want to understand how the system works and to be able to tweak things a little in the future. I may even attend the training in the future as it’s not that expensive in the scheme of things.

[@Richard-t1t8c]

We’ve been researching Loxone for a while for a complete renovation project much like yours. Your content has been really helpful so far. I’d be really interested to know how you are getting on with the system so far and if you’d have any further advice or comments on the system. Most other UK content I’ve found so far seems to be from Loxone or their partners so it’s great to see some independent information

[@JurassicJungle]

Hi Richard, I am just about to film a couple of follow ups. The first will be second fix and all the things I found I had forgotten to wire for (so far). The second will be living with Loxone, what’s good, what’s not so good. We are not quite finished yet as I am waiting for deliver of blinds which is a choice I have agonised over.

[@Richard-t1t8c]

@ thanks for the reply. Looking forward to seeing the new videos. Blinds is also something we’re debating. Did you hardwire yours or go for battery operated? We’re considering dual blinds for south facing bedrooms (one semi-transparent for light shading and privacy and one blackout) and wondering if/how both could be controlled using the touch pure.

[@JurassicJungle]

@@Richard-t1t8c Lots of options on blinds! I ran a 4 core 1mm flex to each window to keep my options open. I didn't want battery as you have to charge them and the batteries will need replacing after a few years. If you use relays you need 2 per blind or 4 in the dual blind option. We have 13 blinds so thats a couple of relay modules for a start. We had a national blind company quote over £16k for blinds but that included a fancy one for the gable glass. I also have Electric Velux windows and blinds so have gone with Somfy Tahoma controlled via an API, that works perfectly with the touch pure. For the windows I plan to use Somfy Zigbee 24v again controlled via Tahoma. I felt Zigbee was a safer long term option. We are hoping to use some day/night blinds but I need to test how that can work with the touch switch. It will need some sort of double tap to set it to a favourite position. We have audio in most rooms so the Touch Pure is fully utilised.

[@bntambridge]

Thanks for your video you are providing information my first glance into Loxone and their product range. (I hope you get sponsored 😀). To be honest the diagram doesn't mean much to me. I can see the mini server and audio server because of the colours and you explained that. But if there is any writing on the extensions the image is too small to see. You have explained most of your extensions anyway. It seems very customisable using their software Config. The touch pure have 5 zones to configure. I was going to ask about touch screens. I see there is an app, is that cloud based only. Or uses local wifi, which could be controlled remotely with a VPN connection to the house. Display wall panels? As with most hardwired systems the planning is the most important step to determine what you need a where. It appears much more difficult for an existing house, but I see they have a retrofit page, more wifi modules I guess? Keep up with the content! Good luck.

[@JurassicJungle]

Hi Bryan, Thanks for your comments. I wish I was sponsored but this will all be from my own money. I didn't talk through my diagram in much detail as it is still changing a lot. The bigger modules have either 4 dimmer channels or 14 relays. My design at the moment keeps getting me very close to tipping over to extra modules. For example if you want 5 dimmers you have to buy 2 modules so may as well use more dimmers as long as it is less than 8 (The dimmers are over £500 for 4 channels). The same with relays, if you need 15 you need to buy another 14. There are some exceptions to that but I am sure you get the idea. The concept of Loxone vs many other home automation systems is that many of the functions will be automated based on time or presence, after that is is scene based. This is designed to avoid you having to pick up a phone, walk to a wall mounted screen or shout at Alexa. As an example when I walk into our open plan living space at a certain time I can have rules that will set lighting, turn on the TV or radio, open blinds etc. If I want to switch scene say from cooking to serving at the dining table its just one press of a wall switch. There is an app that can connect directly to the mini server over the local network or if you chose to remotley. I plan to wall mount an Ipad whcih Loxone can actually control including software updates and by turning on the ipad display when I enter the room or dimming it if I dim the lights. The remote connection I think is authenticated via Loxone and then connects directly but you could also use a VPN. I have seen some really nice wall display panels from other vendors including KNX whcih I could use with Loxone but as I said the concept of loxone is that you should not need to interact with it that way very often. As you have seen there are wireless modules that use Loxone "air" with a smaller server and modules that go behind switches so a much simpler retrofit is possible. Loxone has positioned itself as a more professional platform so I am not sure how easy it would be to do it yourself, if you are not going all in for such a project I would probably explore Zigbee or Z-Wave products. I have had many people aske me why I am not using Home Assistant. I suspect I probably will do so at some point and link it to Loxone but I didn't want to break the house if I mess up a software update. The core of the house functionality (heating lighting and security) needs to just work. If I add some tricky bits on the top to automate or for reporting it doesn't matter if I break them. I will go into much more detail on each use case with Loxone over coming months.

[@bntambridge]

@@JurassicJungle I know what you mean. I use HA personally and find that the monthly updates which add new features there is always a risk of instability. Where as, I imagine, Loxone offer a few necessary updates which certainly feels more stable and does not need to be tinkered with. I saw another video about leaving enough DIN slots for expansion. I like the openness of HA, but you can guarantee that things just work when it's the same manufacturer. Also, you have so much to do it must be nice to outsource work. I don't know if there are any HA contractors?

[@JurassicJungle]

@@bntambridge Hi Bryan, I think the updates from Loxone should be less likely to cause an issue as design much like an industrial PLC solution. They describe is as being "Clopen" a closed platform that just works but open to integration with other platforms. Loxone discourage a DIY approach and even closed their web store to the public for a while. I find it is also not documented very well. They really want you to use a Loxone partner to ensure a great end user experience which I do think is a good idea. The Loxone partner will design and build the panel, install at second fix and do all of the programming work. Some don’t let the customer tinker and will maintain remotely. The partner I am working with “Thames Valley Automation” is run by an ex Loxone employee and so far he has been pretty flexible. I will have to see how much I take on ownership or if I pay him for some updates. The heating control in particular is quite complex so I think I will certainly leave that to him. I have purchased a 1Home gateway which allows a 2 way link to Loxone via MATTER so I hope I can use that for connection to Alexa and other services. My only disappointment with that is that I know I can’t get voice control of the audio server which would have been nice.

[@TheGingerOneNI]

Did you consider Faradite PIR sensors instead of Loxone own brand? If so, why did you pick one over the other? Did you use a lighting designer? Did you consider other lighting technologies such as DALI or DMX? Was being able to easily revert to a conventional home lighting system an influence as to why you went with 240v lights? Were you aware of the Loxone compatible Weaver & Ducre lights when you planned your lighting> If not, would it have maybe changed you mind to do 24v lighting?

[@JurassicJungle]

I did look at Faradite PIR and I think they look nicer, I was initially against the Loxone surface mounted ones as I thought they looked cheap and also people described the recessed ones as looking like a failed lamp! While Faradite would work as a PIR I don't think it can use the audio to sense continued occupation. We still need to adjust that a bit for some of our rooms but we are not actually living in the house correctly yet (we have our bed in the utility room!). I didn’t use a lighting designer but seriously considered it. I agonised over what to do in the large open plan room with a vaulted ceiling. I installed a number of extra cables behind the plaster just in case my planned cable lights looked crap. Thankfully they look pretty good (only installed them this week). Our lighting is pretty simple at the moment so I didn’t see the need to DALI or DMX. We were going to do a lot more with RGBW washing walls with colour but so many people warned us against it as it shows up every detail in the plaster. We finally found an amazing plasterer for the big room but even then I can see lines where I used a roller to paint it. The reason for going 240v was for a number of reasons but I may well change to 24V later as I have loads of spare capacity on my PSU. I liked the Loxone RGBW spots but they are not bright and have a narrow beam angle I would have needed a lot more spots (I think) to get the effects I wanted and they would have cost >£3000 more. I liked the idea of colour adjustable lights but there were no off the shelf options. I see Loxone have now partnered with Weaver and Ducre who can fit colour adjustable bulbs in their fittings but I could not find a price and the only dealer was in Knightsbridge so I assume £££ for them as well (this announcement also came out after I had made my decision) It was not done as I thought I would need to revert to traditional lights I have committed to a data cable to all switches so if Loxone came out it would still need a smart system of some sort to replace it. As an example I have fitted Paulmann cable lights on the vaulted ceiling and I REALLY wanted to do that with 24v controller via RGBW modules but I really struggled to find decent 24V GU5.3 lamps. I will still look at making that 24V later as all I need to do is swap the lamps and remove the transformer.

[@TheGingerOneNI]

@JurassicJungle I'm all in with the 24v system but my missus is hesitant. Her fear is what do we do if it goes wrong or Loxone ceases to trade. I've tried explaining to her that it can be converted to KNX but she's still unsure. It's good to hear your decision was just based on preference and not adversion to 24v

[@II-ct7vx]

I’m looking at a similar project on a refurbishment in the UK. Loxone looks great but I’m swaying towards KNX for lighting and switches to avoid any single point of failure. Wondered if that’s something you considered before choosing Loxone?

[@JurassicJungle]

Hi, I did look at KNX but my understanding was that it was a bit more difficult to configure as you have to configure each device, for example you have to configure the switch and the dimmer or relay unit whil Loxone will just scan the Tree network and automatically discover everything. But as you suggest the KNX route does give a level of fault tolerance as it doesn't rely on a single central server like Loxone. From my research the Loxone mini server seems to be pretty solid, the most likley failure will be the micro sd card so I plan to have a backup copy of that just in case perhaps at worst case a spare mini server but I don't think that's really required. You do get a broader choice of switches and sensors with KNX. I dislike the standard Loxon switches, the touch pure that I will be using is nice but they are over £200 per switch! I did see a half way house solution at the Swindon self build centre recently. It used low cost KNX components and was super simple to configure, that trades off against some limitiations of the overall integration that may be possible but if you are mainly looking at lighting I would check it out. www.luxorliving.co.uk/for-private-customers/luxorliving-smart-home/ Unfortunatley when I saw that I had really gone too far with Loxone to change.

[@iko359]

Massima diffusione!