Loxone is a smart building system made by an Austrian company of the same name. Instead of a separate app for your lights, another for your heating and a third for your alarm, one central controller runs them all as a single system. That controller is called the Miniserver, and it lives next to your fuse board.
How it works
The Miniserver makes its decisions locally, inside your building. Wired devices connect to it over Loxone Tree. Wireless ones use Loxone Air. Sensors report what's happening, and the Miniserver responds based on how it has been programmed for your home: presence in a room brings the lights up, the sun moving round the house adjusts the blinds, a room warms up for the time you actually use it.
Because everything runs locally, the system keeps working if your internet goes down. Lights, heating and switches carry on as normal. The internet is only needed for the extras: controlling the house while you're away, notifications on your phone, and software updates.
There's no monthly subscription for the core system. Once it's installed and commissioned, it's yours.
What it can control
- Lighting. Triggered by presence, scheduled by time of day, or set to scenes at the touch of one button.
- Heating and cooling. Room-by-room schedules that respond to occupancy or follow the weather, rather than one thermostat for the whole house.
- Blinds and shading. Responding to sun position and time of day, or left to manual control, whichever suits the room.
- Security and door entry. Cameras, alarms and callers brought into one system, so you see who's at the door without switching apps.
- Audio. Zone by zone, from the same interface as everything else, or kept separate.
- Energy. Solar generation, battery storage and EV charging reporting into the same system as your lighting and heating, so they work together instead of separately.
Whatever's automated, you can always override it manually, from a switch on the wall or from one app covering the whole house. You can read more about what that looks like in practice on our smart homes page.
How is that different from smart gadgets?
You can do some of this with off-the-shelf gadgets. The difference is that Loxone runs everything through one controller instead of a collection of separate apps, and the system is designed for your building rather than added piece by piece. We've written an honest comparison of the two approaches, including where the gadgets are the right call: Loxone vs separate smart gadgets.
Who installs it
You don't buy Loxone off a shelf and set it up yourself. Systems are designed, programmed and commissioned by trained partners. That's where we come in.
Robinson Automate is a Loxone Silver Partner based in Widnes. We design the system, support your electrician through the wiring, then program and commission it. Your own electrician carries out the physical installation, so for them it's a normal wiring job. At handover you get full documentation, a project file and training on your own system, nothing locked behind a password only we hold.
Is it right for your project?
Loxone gives the best results when it's planned into a new build or renovation, because getting the wiring right at first fix costs far less than adding it later. Retrofit is still possible, wireless Air devices exist for exactly that, but if you're about to renovate, the best time to talk is before your electrician quotes.
