jack

You can get busbar-type products as well, but I think this type is neater and now compact.

Yes, that's right. You supply 24V to one side of the switch and connect the other side of the switch to the digital input of interest. At the moment, we have a weird arrangement where each extension has a cable extending from the power supply to that extension, to which the wires for the 24V side of the switches for that extension are connected. It's fine if you never want to change or add anything, but it means you need to bring both wires in each twisted pair all the way up to the extension. The product I had in mind would likely be something along the lines of the one for which an image is posted above. It's called a DIN rail termination block. I think I grabbed that image from RS components, but let me know if you have any issues finding what you're after.

Yes, except most only charge at full rate up to about 80%, and then slow down.

I've been mucking about with our installation a bit recently. I don't recall how many CAT6 cables we have arriving in the cabinet, but most only use a single pair out of the four available (because most cables are to light switches). We ended up stripping the outer sheath off each CAT6 cable before it enters the cabinet, and peeling out the pair that's needed for each connection. The remaining cores are neatly coiled in a separate box adjacent where the CAT6 cables arrive at the cabinet. Even with this approach, it gets very congested given the number of runs and the mixture of low and high voltage in the same cabinet. I've only recently become aware of the fine detail of this arrangement, and believe we missed a real trick when installing. Instead of taking each twisted pair up to whatever Loxone component it's connected to, we should have split the twisted pair, terminated one conductor in a busbar-type din rail termination, and the other in a multi-terminal din rail termination like this: Then you just need to run a single wire up to the relevant input. This approach also lets you use a thicker hook-up cable for the internal cabinet runs, which is far nicer to use than CAT6. You can also get double-insulated hook-up cable, which improves safety. It will absolutely cost more to do it this way, but every future interaction with the wiring in the cabinet will be easier and safer in my opinion. Once I get a bit further through my long to-do list, I'll be converting to this wiring approach.

If you have any questions while trying out the config software, post them here. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly powerful. For example, I've just installed magnetic (reed) window sensors on my garage door rail, and mounted the corresponding magnet to the door itself so that one of the reed switches is closed when it's full open, and the other is closed when the garage is fully closed. I also wired in an output relay across the open/close volt-free contact that controls the garage door. Programming Loxone to read the open/closed status based on the reed switches and to add a virtual button to the app to let me open and close the door took about three minutes. Later, I plan to add some logic so I can see when there's an issue. For example, start a timer when the door starts closing, and flag when it hasn't closed within a certain time (suggesting there's a blockage or some other problem).

We've had at least a couple of interesting threads on this topic: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/7459-ideal-stair-angle https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/1983-stair-design-for-comfort Edited to add: for my money, your proposed just-shy-of-200mm rise is on the high side.

Really useful to know, thanks. Most of the channels I have are 4 x 8W downlights or a handful of 2W downlights, so shouldn't be an issue. Kitchen is the only one that might be an issue at 7 x 9W, but I could have them ramp up at startup if any issues, I suppose. I do wish I'd gone for CC DMX drivers. They would have cost a bit more, but the quality of the dimming is a different league entirely. I bought an EldoLED CC driver a while ago to play with and was amazed at how low they dim without the slightest flicker.

Yes, I'm on DMX too. I initially used those nasty Chinese 3-channel dimmers everyone was using with Loxone a while ago, but they're unreliable to say the least. I've replaced half of those with an 8-way KNX dimmer, and am presently eyeing up replacing the rest. Not sure whether to go with one of those new Whitewing dimmers and possibly replace everything (and sell on the KNX dimmer), or possibly just accept a mixture of two different dimming types.

No, I believe they've become increasingly hostile to the DIY market over the last few years. They shut the forum down 3 or 4 years ago, started refusing to answer technical questions unless you were a professional installer, and more recently stopped even selling direct to consumers. I've encountered several people (including myself) who did the installers course at least partly based on the promise of the discount, only to be refused it at the end because they weren't professional installers. There's some recent discussion about Dali on the forum posted above. Loxone's gear is generally pretty good, but often it's much more expensive than other options like Dali or DMX.

Incidentally, I'm not far from you and installed my own Loxone system with the help of an electrician about 5 years ago if you ever want a chat about what you're doing. Currently in the process of adding sensors to my garage so I can control it (and determine its open/closed/blocked status) via the app.

Have a look at Loxone Google Groups: https://groups.google.com/g/loxone-english/ (if you're doing any of this yourself, if makes sense to be in this group anyway, imo). There are at least a couple of UK-based suppliers who've offered to supply to UK private customers. Edited to add: I can't see why this would be the case: What error message are you getting @Hilldes?

Welcome to BuildHub!

It was a Loxone forum, so more concerned with home automation. It might be that this is an unusual subset of users and is therefore skewing things.

Ah right, sorry. I thought you were talking about just the road crossing.

That surprises me. I'm a member of a home automation forum, and Texecom is widely and repeatedly recommended as the best brand to install.

Nope:

Worse, it looks like the 35mm drops to 25mm after the first house.

Looking at the dogleg in the property line, it looks like it's the currently empty area to the right of the row of houses.

From memory, our are Crosswater Mike Pro in some sort of matt/brushed stainless finish. They all still look like new.

Looks an interesting project. Any reason why ground source? It's a rare situation in which the higher costs of ground source relative to air source stack up.

Agreed. I've just had a look through this paper. While you're right about it using less energy, I think it's more accurate to say that one particular person found it comfortable to live with their kitchen at 15.5-17 deg C, and their bedrooms at a similar temperature range. My teenage sons would be perfectly happy at that temperature, and I would have been too, when I was about 20 years younger! But there's no way in hell my wife would consider that temperature range acceptable. Also, the modelling assumes "informed and well-behaved occupants who ventilate the buildings in the correct and most efficient way". I'd argue that this is an impossible standard to set (and admittedly the authors acknowledge that this is a shortcoming of the modelling). I also disagree that it's as general as there being "no reduction in indoor air quality or comfort". Again, this was solely based on a single individual's subjective impression, based on a survey. Yes, they normalised for size, but they did nothing to take into account the fact that the flats weren't the same size, and that one was a single ground-level storey, while the other was two stories above. Overall, the best that can be said about the numbers is that they show occupant behaviour and desires are critical inputs to how much energy a building will use. All that said, it's an interesting article, and it's worth reading for a different perspective on the question of whether installing an MVHR unit is the right thing for any individual.

Welcome! Lots of members didn't even have a plan when they started, so don't feel too bad. Best thing to do is browse the forums, use the search function, and not be afraid to ask questions.

We have Crosswater throughout our house. Just ticked over 5 years after moving in and not a single drip from any of them.

No, in both cases I just plugged them in. Actually, now I think of it, the Samsung was first used wirelessly because I hadn't yet terminated the CAT6 cable at that location. Once I did that, I just plugged it in and changed the network settings, and it worked fine.

Most? That really, really surprises me. I bought two mid range smart TVs (one Samsung, one Sony) last year, and both have ethernet. I don't recall seeing anything in any of the reviews I read about countless models saying they were wireless only. Sure, you can connect just about everything via WiFi but it's undoubtedly the case that hard wiring is a more robust solution. My experience is that WiFi is sometimes imperfect, and frankly life is too short to be spending any of it sorting out avoidable IT issues.