Going away on holiday? Smart home automation can be really advantageous. Why not have one system that decides if the room needs heated, or cooled?
Without a common link between them you could have the heating on and also the AC running at the same time, depending on what setpoints have been selected. Take, for example, a home with a UFH heating system, and also an AC system. Overall, it is a big gain in aesthetic appeal, particularly when most manufacturer’s controls all look vastly different.Īnother benefit of tying systems together is that they might be working against each other, unless closely monitored. These could all potentially be replaced by one switch to do the lighting control for both rooms, read the temperature, turn the music on – and the schedule for the floor would be done in the app.
In the picture, you can see a thermostat for the room, a keypad to trigger the lighting scenes, a controller for the heat mat or towel rail in the bathroom, a music controller and a light switch for the bathroom, all inhabiting the same space.
The difficulty with this is that it can lead to a rather clustered look, and can be confusing to operate. If you have many independent systems, traditionally, they will all come with something that needs installed to allow you to use the system. Equally a “Home” button could illuminate the pathway through the house to the kitchen for when you are arriving home carrying shopping bags.Ī home automation system can also cut down on the amount of switches/sensors/controls that are on your wall (See “Wall Acne” photo). What are the benefits of a Smart Home Automation system?Ī well planned and executed smart home installation should bring many benefits, but primarily the aim is this – Comfort, Convenience and Control, but also… Fun!Ī common connection between all the various systems in the house should allow more global control for example, an “Away” button on a switch at the front door turns all internal lights and music off, but illuminates the drive and porch for 5 minutes until you have left. It certainly adds a level of future proofing. Loxone also has a range of wireless or “Air” products, meaning that retrofitting is an option on older house – but also in newer builds, when new devices become available that perhaps haven’t been cabled for. This home automation system can also send notifications to your phone – such as “a window has been left open”, or can even call you to let you know if there was, say, a water leak which had been detected. Connection to the home automation system can be done both internally via Wi-Fi, and externally, as long as your Miniserver is connected up to your broadband network – meaning you know what is going on with your house at all times. It is also possible to connect via a browser, meaning PCs and Apple Macs can both be used. The Miniserver offers access to its interface in a few different ways – there is a Loxone app which allows tablets and smartphones to connect. The important thing to realise is that by centralising the system, you have greatly increased your ability to adapt your new home to fit your requirements, rather than the conventional method of wiring the home, which means that you are restricted by the physical connections around the home. With the flexible nature of the Miniserver’s logic, it is up to you to decide how the switches in your house will control things: Do you want a keypad that turns lights on, reads temperatures, controls your music, and boosts the heating if it is a little cold for you? It’s up to you to decide (and then let your installer know!). Once you have your various extensions installed, connected and addressed, how you interact with them is down to you and your installer. Link connections allow you to expand the home automation system, and there are many “extensions” that Loxone offer which can be added to give you more relays, dimmable lighting circuits, or control modules for air conditioning, as required. The Miniserver comes with a variety of input and output connections that give you a starting allocation of relays – which you could use to control some light circuits, an electric heater, an actuator or a pump, for example – and digital inputs for switches/PIRs etc. It is a programmable logic controller that is used to tie together the many, usually independent, subsystems of the house, so that they can all be controlled through one, easy to use interface. Loxone’s Miniserver is the centre piece to their modular home automation system.
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