How does Loxone compare to Comfort or Fibaro?

[ianh100]

Hi All, I appreciate this group is likely to be pro Loxone but I would like your thoughts.

I have been a home automation dabbler for many years starting with X10 20 years ago. I have a Comfort gen1 system which is really just the house alarm now as the X10 solution became unreliable. For automation today I have Fibaro HC3 controlling all lighting and some radiator valves, heating is Nest. We use Sonos for Audio.

I am moving to a new house which will be completely rewired. budget allowing I hope to include under floor heating, Air source heat pump and perhaps solar. Now I have the opportunity to do everything from scratch I would like to do thing right. SWMBO likes this idea of Loxone as it is more likely to be reliable and "invisible" unlike some of my more enthusiastic projects. The new house will be quite small, just 3 bedrooms and a large open plan living space.

It is a little frustrating that Loxone will now only sell through a partner but I can understand why they would want to do that to ensure a good quality experience and an enthusiastic partner network. I have spoken to a couple of partners who seem open to me having full access to the system if I want and to allow me to do some of the work to first fix as long as it is to their specs and they can inspect all of the cable routes and fixings if i decide to go that route.

Looking at the programming it looks quite similar to Cytech Comfort, not too difficult to create scenes etc.

My Fibaro setup has been reliable but the software and in particular the integrations are very lacking. It comes in nice "Apple" style packing but the software sucks in my opinion.

I will visit my local partner soon to get an idea of all of the set up options, I am not sure what to do about music for a start as the services supported by Loxon are not as good a Sonos. Its a shame I can't see list prices for all of the modules as that would really help me get a rough idea of the budget options, in particular for lighting. I really like the idea of Loxon lights and the individual control that allows for a scene but how does that compare with a dimmer module working with my own choice of lighting? I appreciate that is not as simple to work out as the Loxone tree installation could make all of the cabling much simpler but I assume that is at the cost of locking me into a Loxone fitting in that location unless I rewire.

Cheers for any thoughts

[toscal]

I like Loxone a lot. I have installed 4 systems so far. Most have used their air technology, which is a meshed system. The air system will automatically workout the mesh so no need to tell the devices how to hop back the the miniserver. So if you change a devices location it will sort itself out.
I also like the fact that Loxone can talk to a variety of non Loxone devices, it even talks to my washing machine. I have successfully used Shelly devices with Loxone, and this is fairly straight forward to set up. I even wrote a tutorial about it, in another post on here.
Regards to sound, you might want to look at Lithe Audio's wifi enabled speakers. They do an xml plugin for Loxone. One of the owners of Lithe has Loxone in his home.
Lighting- in my apartment I use a combination of Tree and Air based lighting. which works well. I like the fact that at night I can have lights only coming on at 15% brightness so if I wake up during the night I don't get blinded when going to the loo . You could also use Shelly modules for the lighting and get Loxone to control it. I am currently working on an install for the new year where I need to install 7 extractor fans these will use Shelly 2.5 modules, one output switches on a light and the second output controls the fan. All this is then controlled by the Loxone system ( I installed about 3 years ago for a client), so if the light is on for more than 3 minutes the fan is then switched on and then when the light is switched off the fan switches off five minutes later.
Loxone is very versatile. It is also very modular, so start with the mission critical stuff and expand out from there when time and budget allows. My lounge and bathroom are fully under Loxone control and the kitchen and bedrooms are still normal. One last important thing is you can use any type of switch with the standard Nano Air module. May not sound like a big deal, but you don't want to have to do a Loxone appreciation course everytime friends come over. Loxone do do their own touch switches, but in reality I very rarely install these for clients.
Hope this helps.

[ianh100]

Thanks for your thoughts. I am currently planning a complete rewire as it will be a very extensive renovation and extension. I have priced up all of the Loxone components I could need assuming it is mostly tree. That all came to around £8k. I have found an installer who seems flexible on how we can work together with me doing some of the first fix work as the renovations may be done over a period of time. Its a shame that Loxone have removed the option for me to buy direct and access training but I also want a better experience than I currently have with Fibaro. I am assuming that is why they always want a partner to install to maintain their reputation. So for me it will really come down to me being happy I can work with the partner allowing me to do some of the work and have access to change and tune things myself over time. I am currently assuming the overall budget will be £15-£20k.

[toscal]

The other thing to remember is that Loxone (and Shelly to a degree) will still work locally if the internet is down.