Smart Home on the South Coast

Challenge

This was a new build project with the opportunity to build a smart home system from the ground up.

Our client was building a brand new home and looking to install many smart home features covering automated lighting throughout the house and garden, a fully zoned heating system consisting of wet underfloor downstairs and radiators upstairs, automated shading, ventilation, a fully zoned security system, access control, EV charging, integration with electric roller garage doors, main gate access control for both their own and the property next door. Finally, there should be the ability to remotely access the system from anywhere and be notified if the security system was triggered.

The Client pointed out their neighbour does not have a Loxone system but still needed to find a way for them to be able to control the main gate.

Solution

The Client was provided with a demo at Loxone’s UK Showroom in Theale where the Digital Experience Tour was presented. We discussed the various aspects of their project and why Loxone was the perfect solution to their needs.

Initially, they had mixed feelings about the use of coloured downlights. However, once they had seen the demonstration and how these might work in their own property, the whole of the downstairs lighting was chosen to be based on Loxone lighting. They now enjoy the various lighting scenes and benefits that a bit of coloured lighting brings. One feature they love about coloured lighting is when they access the house with the alarm set. Rather than receiving an immediate “silent alarm” notification on their devices, instead all the lights flash red for up to 30 seconds giving them time to disarm the system before the notification is sent.

Outside, the Garden has a number of pergolas and pathways that needed to be lit along with security lighting that would activate on movement detection when the alarm was set and subsequently triggered.

For the heating, a single wet underfloor heating manifold provides heating to all the downstairs rooms. Radiators upstairs provide heating to all the bedrooms and bathrooms, including towel rails. As the Client was not keen on having to change batteries in the Loxone Valve Actuator Air units, we came up with a solution to use Loxone Tree Actuators instead and managed to hide the Tree cable through access panels that blend in with the decorated walls.

The Client was very keen on automated shading. The project did not include any active cooling system so automated shading was the perfect solution when combined with Loxone heating. Altogether there are 33 wired blinds we installed from Qmotion, which have been fully integrated into Loxone using 2 x RS485 interface units. Automated shading is now used in combination with the heating, presence simulation and a convenience to the customer that they don’t need to go round opening and closing 33 blinds every day as the system does this for them.

A Ventaxia MVHR unit has been installed, again integrated with Loxone, providing functionality to automatically set the MVHR to “low” mode on a triple click when they go to bed. During the day, Loxone humidity sensors automatically demand increased ventilation on high levels of humidity in the various rooms including of course bathrooms.

When it came to security, the Client wanted the ability to be able to set the alarm downstairs at night leaving upstairs unset. Additionally, the separate Garage sets the alarm itself in that area automatically after 2 hours of no movement being detected. Loxone NFC Code Touch Tree keypads were used along with key fob control for arming and disarming the alarm.

For the Somfy based Garage electric roller doors, we installed a Loxone Nano I/O Air powered with 24v to provide 2 x volt-free contacts into a Somfy wireless transmitter. Loxone wired door contacts provide feedback through the digital inputs of the Nano I/O Air to indicate whether the doors are open, closed or partially open.

Further, a Loxone Touch Pure Flex keypad enables them to arm the downstairs area only leaving upstairs disarmed at night. A Loxone Touch Pure Flex keypad is conveniently located near to the stairs saving them having to open the Loxone App when going to bed. A “Going to Bed” button on the Touch Pure Flex turns off all downstairs lighting except for the Hallway lighting which provides enough light to go upstairs safely. After 1 minute, the Hallway lighting is then automatically turned off and the downstairs alarm is automatically armed.

Access control was another requirement for the main electric gate shared with the neighbour and their own pedestrian gate fitted with an electric lock. From the challenge mentioned above, we needed to provide a means for their neighbour to not only know whether the main gate was open or closed but also to be able to open/close it themselves.

To accomplish this, we provided the Loxone App to their neighbour and then using the very flexible permissions functionality within Loxone, their neighbour only has access in the App to control the main gate with no visibility of the rest of the client’s house.

Further, the system notifies both the Client and his neighbour if the gate is still open at 11pm. For the Client they have the option of operating the main gate and pedestrian gate from the App or from the Touch Pure Flex at the front door. A “Main Gate” button on the Touch Pure Flex is located to the left-hand side using one an indication LED. This lights up when the main gate is open. Similarly, another button on the left-hand side of the Touch Pure Flex is used to operate the pedestrian gate, momentarily lighting up when the electric lock is activated.

The client has two electric vehicles and therefore home EV charging was another requirement. We installed the Loxone single-phase Wallbox and since they did not want to install solar panels, we advised the client to open an account with Octopus Energy and take advantage of one of the low electricity tariffs offered by Octopus and aimed at customers who have an EV vehicle. Their Loxone system is now set up to only charge their vehicles during the low rate period. Of course this can be manually overridden if charging is required at other times.

To complete the system, the client can also access their system though the Loxone App both locally and remotely.