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A contemporary house with lighting, blinds and heating under building control
Ribble AV X KNX
Accredited KNX partner

KNX building control for houses built to last

The open, manufacturer-independent standard for lighting, blinds, heating, ventilation and energy. No single vendor owns it, no cloud is required, and the project file belongs to you.

FIG. 01 / KNX BUILDING CONTROL
ISO/IEC 14543 International standard
SINCE 1999 KNX Association
500 Member manufacturers
ROYALTY FREE Open specification
01 The partnership

The only platform we can hand over completely.

KNX is an open standard rather than one company’s product. At the end of the job you own the house and everything in it, including the file that makes it work.

  • The project file is yours, documented and handed over.
  • Any certified KNX installer can pick it up. You are not tied to us.
  • No single brain to fail. Each part of the house keeps working.
  • Kit from different makers, chosen on merit rather than badge.

It costs a little more to set up than a closed system. What that buys is a house that is still easy to change in twenty years.

KNX DIN-rail modules installed and labelled in a distribution board
FIG. 02 / DIN-RAIL ACTUATORS, LABELLED
02 Projects

Buildings running KNX.

View the full portfolio →
The White Horse bar and restaurant interior FIG. 03 / HOSPITALITY The White Horse Cromer, Norfolk Fifty lighting circuits, five heating zones and four scenes a member of staff can actually use. Church Wood living room at dusk FIG. 04 / RESIDENTIAL Church Wood Lancashire First fix to handover: lighting, heating, blinds, audio, cinema and network on one app and a set of engraved keypads. An indoor swimming pool lit with LED tape FIG. 05 / RESIDENTIAL Private Swimming Pool Northampton Two hundred metres of LED tape dimmed smoothly, seven ceiling speakers and a screen whose sound comes from above.
03 The brand

A standard, not a brand.

KNX is not a company selling boxes. It is an open standard administered by a non-profit association formed in Belgium in 1999, converging three earlier European systems into one protocol. It is approved as ISO/IEC 14543-3 internationally and EN 50090 in Europe, and the specification is royalty free.

Around five hundred manufacturers build certified KNX devices, and every one of them is tested to interoperate regardless of make. There is no central controller: devices talk to each other over a bus, so a failed keypad takes out a keypad rather than a house.

Established 1999 KNX Association, Brussels, non-profit
Standard ISO/IEC 14543-3 Also EN 50090 and ANSI/ASHRAE 135
Manufacturers Around 500 Across 45 nations, all certified to interoperate
Best for Long-horizon projects New builds, estates, architect-led schemes
04 The range

What a KNX installation is made of.

The hardware varies by project because the standard lets it. These are the parts every scheme has.

FamilyWhat it isWhere we use it
Power supply and bus
A KNX power supply and twisted pair running to every device. Boring, essential, and where a cheap job shows itself first.
Every project
DIN-rail actuators
Dimming, switching and blind actuators in the distribution board. Labelled, documented, and reachable without dismantling a cupboard.
Consumer unit · Panels
Keypads and panels
Ekinex, Gira, Jung and similar. Glass and metal plates, engraved, in finishes that suit the interior rather than fighting it.
Throughout
Sensors
Presence, light level, temperature and humidity, plus a weather station where shading and ventilation need to react to the outside.
Circulation · Plant
Heating and ventilation
Room controllers and valve actuators, so zoning is real rather than a thermostat in the hall guessing on behalf of eight rooms.
Whole house
IP gateway
The bridge to the network, for remote access, for visualisation, and for the AV platform sitting over the top.
Rack · Plant room
05 How we specify it

What drives the cost.

KNX is priced by device count and programming hours. The bus itself is cheap. Everything hanging off it is not.

Driver 01

Circuit and device count

Every dimmable circuit, blind motor, valve and keypad is a device to buy, wire, address and test. A large house with a detailed lighting design carries hundreds of them.

Driver 02

How much logic you want

Switching a light is quick. Scenes that follow sunset, ventilation that responds to humidity and heating that works around a tariff are programming time, and that is most of the value.

Driver 03

First fix or retrofit

KNX belongs in a building at first fix, where the bus can reach everywhere for very little money. In a finished house it needs KNX RF, which is capable but costs more per point.

Indicative only. A design visit produces a fixed price.

06 Where it fits

The systems KNX usually runs underneath.

Smart automation 08 Smart automation Control4 and KNX, one app for the house. → Lighting control 04 Lighting control Scenes on every circuit, Lutron and KNX. → Climate control 05 Climate control Zoned heating, cooling and ventilation. → Shading & electric blinds 06 Shading & electric blinds Motorised blinds and curtains on scenes. →
07 Where we install

KNX installed across the North West.

Ribble Valley 01

Clitheroe, Whalley, Longridge, Waddington, Ribchester, Chipping, Sabden, Downham, Slaidburn, Wiswell, Great Mitton, Hurst Green, Billington, Langho, Clayton-le-Dale
Preston & the Fylde 02

Fulwood, Penwortham, Broughton, Goosnargh, Grimsargh, Longton, Hutton, Lea, Barton, Woodplumpton
Lytham St Annes & the coast 03

Lytham, St Annes, Ansdell, Fairhaven, Wrea Green, Kirkham, Freckleton, Warton, Singleton
Wider Lancashire 04

Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington, Chorley, Lancaster, Garstang, Ormskirk, Rawtenstall, Padiham, Whitworth
Greater Manchester 05

Didsbury, Chorlton, Bowdon, Hale, Sale, Worsley, Prestwich, Ramsbottom, Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme
Cheshire 06

Knutsford, Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Prestbury, Mobberley, Tarporley, Tattenhall, Chelford, Goostrey, Nether Alderley
Wilmslow & Alderley Edge 07

Alderley Edge, Wilmslow, Prestbury, Hale Barns, Mottram St Andrew, Styal, Dean Row, Handforth
Liverpool & the Wirral 08

Woolton, Allerton, Aigburth, Formby, Crosby, Heswall, West Kirby, Caldy, Blundellsands
Lake District & Cumbria 09

Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere, Coniston, Ullswater, Pooley Bridge, Cartmel, Grange-over-Sands, Keswick

Not on the list? Ask anyway. Plenty of our work sits outside the towns above, and a five-minute phone call will tell you whether we are the right people for it.

08 Common questions

KNX, honestly answered.

No. It is an open standard administered by a non-profit association, and around five hundred manufacturers build certified devices to it. You buy hardware from those manufacturers, and it all works together.

Because it is wired, distributed and commissioned properly. You are paying for the bus, the device count and the programming hours. In exchange there is no vendor lock-in and no cloud dependency.

Your ETS file is documented and yours. Any certified KNX partner can open it and carry on. That is the single best argument for the standard, and the reason architects specify it.

Partly. KNX RF handles wireless devices where cable cannot run, and it works well. It costs more per point than wired, so we usually mix the two and are honest about where the boundary sits.

No. The bus runs entirely on site. An IP gateway adds remote access and visualisation if you want them, and removing that connection changes nothing about how the house behaves.

Yes, and often should. KNX handles the building services, Control4 handles audio, video and the app. Each does the part it is best at, which is the arrangement we recommend most often on larger houses.

09 Other brands

The rest of the platforms we hold accreditation for.

Artcoustic 01 / Loudspeakers Artcoustic Danish on-wall and in-ceiling, finish matched. → Basalte 02 / Control interfaces Basalte Belgian keypads and panels, made to be touched. → Control4 03 / Automation Control4 One app for the house, programmed by us. →
SET 01 / 03
A stone house lit at dusk
11 / START HERE

Talk to us before first fix.

We visit, listen, measure, and come back with drawings and a fixed price. If another platform suits the house better, we will tell you that too.

KNX enquiry