Loxone just recently won the German wise house award in the ‘Best Project’ category.  The prize was award for “The brown Box”, a wise house completely kitted out with Loxone.  Thanks to Loxone we’ve republished their situation research study outlining the winning house automation system …

The 240m² household house, developed in 2008, is not just all about the innovation – it makes regular life in the house its greatest priority. There are tons of practical functions, tailored precisely to the owners’ needs. These functions are affordable, simple to set up, as well as just make daily life a great deal easier.  The centrepiece of this job is the Miniserver which, with its intelligent manage of whatever from blinds as well as illumination to the sauna as well as house cinema, makes life in the house much more comfortable, as well as meaningfully supports the owners.

Project Summary

This detached house, close to the town center, was rebuilt on the foundations of an old 1960s home in 2008 as well as is a genuine gem, both inside as well as out. As the owner was not happy with the preliminary KNX installation, whatever under the hood was replaced with the finest innovation Loxone has to offer.

WHAT’S INSIDE…

Blinds that look after themselves

Our blinds change themselves completely automatically. It at first took a bit of getting utilized to, however now we couldn’t do without them. In the morning they available to catch the sunlight as well as warm the room. around midday, depending upon space temperature as well as exactly how much sunlight there is, the blinds will shade the house, then close in the evening to provide privacy. Of course, we can likewise change the blinds whenever we want manually type a switch, or with an iPhone. however most days they go all the time on their own without any type of input from us. more on this later…

Give us some privacy! The ‘good evening’ function

Although our home is quite well positioned away from prying eyes, when it gets dark, we still requirement some privacy. As soon as the sun sets (i.e not on a fixed timer – however utilizing a regional calculated sunset time) the blinds for the spaces dealing with the street come down to block out the view. That’s exactly how we’re able to leave the blinds to do their task in the evening too.

Cock-a-doodle-doo – our ‘good morning’ function

Each morning as it gets lights, each blind is either raised, or set to ‘shade’ (i.e. slats in the horizontal position), depending upon the room.
This function is triggered as soon as it’s light sufficient outside that you don’t requirement any type of more lights inside. It goes off at the earliest at 7am on working days, as well as 8am in the holidays.

Bye-bye cold! free insulation.

People frequently discuss whether closing all your blinds or curtains truly assists insulate a home or not. Purely from typical sense I’d state yes. If you open a window when the outside shutters are closed you can truly feel their insulating impact – particularly when it’s windy as the air motion is less.

At no additional cost

Since the Miniserver does everything – as well as it won’t fee you any type of additional – we just run the exact same shading program in winter when it’s less than 5 degrees after sunset.

Keep the sun out – automatic shading

For those hot summertime days we’ve set up Loxone’s automatic shading function to provide just the right shading we want. With this feature, by utilizing fairly simple functions, we can get the very best from our blinds, as well as make them do what they were designed to do: provide shading.
Each window is handled separately, so when the sun hits the south-east side of the home in the morning, all the blinds there get into position. The slats close only as much as is necessary to stop any type of direct sunlight getting in as well as over-heating the house.
Even when we’re not at home, the blinds look after themselves – so we never have to return to an overheated house.
We’ve put get in touch with switches on the patio doors to ensure that the blinds can’t come down if a door’s open – stops us getting stuck in our own garden!

Keeping a (window) handle on shading

It’s nothing as well exciting, however potentially for that reason likewise one of my favourite functions. above the shower we’ve got a bit window we can available to air the space quickly. However, when the blinds close immediately in the evening, opening the window doesn’t do anything. Our solution: opening the window when the blinds are down immediately triggers the blinds to open. As soon as the window’s closed again, the blinds close automatically. This saves the hassle of having to press a switch every time – simple, yet extremely effective.

‘Good night’ button

The “Good night Button” is one of the most utilized features in our home – which comes into play every day.

Sauna manage with iPhone

We turn our sauna on via iphone onthe method back from a day’s skiing. 40 minutes later, when we’re home, nothing stands in the method of us having a cosy sauna. Temperature, humidity, illumination as well as music are set just the method we want them. You can likewise set the temperature, humidity as well as sauna mode with the app.

Rammstein for our alarm

When we’re out of the house, our movement detectors serve as alarm sensors. If somebody unauthorised gets in the building, the final level of our alarm is that all the lights in the home flash, the blinds open, as well as our Sonos box plays Rammstein at full volume. I likewise get a phone call on my mobile directly away. If it’s a false alarm, I can likewise reset the system over my phone.

Humidity warning

In some spaces we likewise determine humidity – e.g. in the space where we dry cloths as well as in the bathroom. If the humidity reaches a high level for a sustained period then I’m sent an email. If the humidity reaches extremely high levels, I get a phone call on my mobile.

FAVOURITE

The house cinema enabler for mothers-in-law!

Definitely one of our most liked functions. The primary reason for setting it up was for my wife: “When my parents come to go to or to look after the kids, they can’t watch our TV!”. A great sufficient reason for providing them a single switch which does whatever for them.

Smart music & Sonos

As a central music solution, Sonos is just the job. You can manage it with Sonos Controller or with the Sonos app. To enable you to discover your favourite music quickly as well as easily, you can utilize the traditional buttons for the most important tasks:

• Louder / Quieter
• Play / Pause
• next station

This means you no longer have to browse for the controller or fiddle around in the app. For specific zones, music is turned on by existence detectors, as well as in the bathroom, our favourite radio station comes on in the morning.

Perfect illumination with illumination scenes

Throughout the home we’ve set illumination scenes, both to save on light switches as well as to make the most out of every single light in the home – which definitely wouldn’t occur if every light was managed by its own switch. In our kitchen area for example we’ve got five different light circuits assigned in the different scenes.

Zoned heating control

Zoned heating manage looks after the temperature in each room, all the time. Whatever the weather, amount of sunlight or time of year, this automation makes sure our underfloor heating is always at precisely the right level. therefore the bedroom is always kept at a pleasant 18°C, whereas we keep the bathroom as well as living space at a cosy 23°C.

Central off

Of course, we couldn’t leave out a ‘central off’ switch. It makes sure that, when we leave the house, all lights as well as appliances are turned off, as well as depending upon the mode, the alarm is set.

And the unique feature: every switch in the home turns into a central off switch just by triple pressing – so we’ve always got this practical function close to hand.

Room lights off

We do like utilizing this function: If you double press any type of of the light switches, then all the lights in the space turn off – saving time looking for the right switch.

A sprinkle of colour

Throughout the home we’ve installed coloured LED lights to emphasise the house’s primary features. These are managed either with automatic sequences or with illumination scenes. The option of colour is either made automatically, or with a traditional button – no requirement for a separate controller or other remote.

Access from anywhere

A firewall as well as fixed IP address enable us to gain access to our house quickly from anywhere in the world. perfect if we want to turn the heating up before getting back from holiday, let the shipment guy in, or get the sauna prepared from the ski piste.

Opening up remotely

By integrating the garage doors, front door as well as side entrances we can open or lock up remotely, for example, to let in a delivery. It is likewise especially useful to open up for the neighbours who just wished to bring some doughnuts or quickly borrow a drill.

Control screen – All doors / windows closed?

When going on holiday, or even when we’ve just popped out the house, so we can do a few quick checks we’ve got a manage screen on the app as well as individual interface where we can inspect that all doors as well as windows are locked as well as that no lights or sockets have been left on.

Warning if the garage door’s still open

Because you can’t see the garage doors from our living room, we especially value this function. If one of the doors is still open at dusk, a timer starts. If a door is still open after two hours then I get a phone call on my mobile telling me to shut it.

User interface

With the individual interface for iPad, iphone as well as PC/Browser, we have a simple as well as remove method of accessing all functions as well as settings in the whole house. We frequently utilize the individual interface for remote access, or an iphone / iPod as a simple remote control.

Automatic security lock

To provide extra security, all outside doors as well as gates which are electrically linked are locked immediately at night. This makes sure we don’t accidently leave one open.

Make sure we understand what’s going on in the rain tank

The water level in our central rain water storage tank is constantly monitored with a appropriate sensor. If the water level is low, then the power to the pump is turned off to prevent it running dry. We’re likewise sent info by email.

The precise weather condition for our house

The weather condition forecast we get is calculated precisely for our house. So we can always get the present weather, as well as a two day forecast: whether we’re out as well as about with an iPhone, or with the iPad on the wall. What’s fantastic: the weather condition data isn’t just utilized for info – the sunlight data for example is utilized to choose whether or not to activate the automatic shading.

Just for fun – data recording

Just out of interest, as well as since it doesn’t expense a cent extra, I enjoy plotting out different bits of data from the house, like the water level in the cistern, temperature in different rooms, wind speed etc.

Used Technology

Loxone Cloud Services: Caller, Weather

Cisco firewall, Telekom Web connection

KNX sensors – switches, movement sensors, weather condition station

Ultrasound sensor to determine water level in rainwater tank

EnOcean movement sensors as well as door contacts for the retrofit in the basement

Warm white as well as coloured LED lighting

CFL with dimmable balasts, managed via 0-10V signal

Reed switches on garage doors for security

Controlling Dreambox & Denon AV receiver via LAN

Control of Sony TV via Loxone IR module

Sonos multiroom audio system (controlled via LAN)

Mixture of 0-10V as well as I/O valve actuators for UFH as well as radiators

Loxone space sensors for temperature as well as humidity measurements

Loxone Components

1 Miniserver – the brain for all tasks

11 Extensions

1 IR Extension

1 1-Wire Extension

3 Dimmer Extensions

2 DMX Extensions

2 EnOcean Extensions (retrofit in the old basement)

The brown Box situation research study   :   Loxone Wins wise house Award

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