Smart home maintenance,for the decades after handover.

Less often than maintenance-contract salesmen suggest, more often than never. A well-installed Loxone system needs almost nothing for its first four or five years beyond free firmware updates, which we apply remotely. The real service milestones are battery-driven: wireless sensors run 5–7 years on their original batteries, so around year five a proper visit to replace them all in one pass — rather than one dying every few weeks for two years — is genuinely worth paying for. Alarm systems are the exception: if your Ajax system is professionally monitored or sits behind an insurance requirement, an annual service visit keeps the certificate valid.

Ours covers the things that quietly degrade: every sensor battery checked and replaced where due, firmware brought current across the Miniserver and devices, a full configuration backup taken off-site, dimmer channels and actuators tested under load, network health checked (WiFi coverage drifts as neighbours’ networks change), CCTV lenses cleaned and recordings verified, and alarm sensors walk-tested. We finish by asking what has changed in how you live — new baby, new working pattern, new dog — because automation programmed around a life you no longer lead is the number one reason systems get switched off.

Yes — takeovers are a growing part of our work. We support Loxone, KNX, Ajax, Hikvision, Paxton and Ubiquiti UniFi systems installed by other companies. The first visit is a documentation survey: we map what is actually fitted, recover or rebuild access to the configuration, take a backup, and hand you a written record of your own system — which most inherited smart homes have never had. From there it is supported like one of our own installations.

This is the most common call we get from outside our own client base, and the answer is almost always yes. Loxone and KNX are open platforms — the configuration lives in your house, and any competent certified partner can take over. We recover the project files, secure the passwords in your name rather than the departed installer’s, and pick up support. Control4 and Crestron are harder because programming sits in dealer-held project files; we explain honestly what is recoverable and what would need rebuilding — and if a takeover doesn’t make economic sense, we say so before you spend anything.

Yes, and it is usually the part that needs servicing most. Ajax alarm maintenance covers sensor walk-tests, battery health, tamper checks, backup-SIM connectivity, and — where the system is monitored — the annual service your ARC and insurer expect. CCTV maintenance is mostly optics and storage: lenses cleaned, camera positions re-checked against what they were designed to see, recordings verified, and hard drives replaced before they fail rather than after. Because we install all of it, one visit covers the alarm, the cameras, the network and the automation together.

Honestly: not always, and we would rather tell you that than sell you one. If we installed your Loxone system, lifetime support is already included — you raise a ticket and we fix it, usually remotely, without a contract. A paid plan earns its keep in three situations: a monitored alarm that needs annual certification, a commercial site where downtime has a cost, or an inherited system where the first year involves real work to document and stabilise it. Outside those, pay for the battery visit around year five and keep your money.

It depends on what is fitted, which is why we quote from a documentation survey rather than a rate card. What we can promise about the number: it is itemised — visit, batteries, parts, and any remedial work listed separately so you can strike out anything you don’t want — and remote fixes for our own clients are part of lifetime support, not billable callouts. Inherited systems are quoted after the first survey visit, when we can see what state the installation is genuinely in.

Every TechnoActive client gets a login to our own portal — not an off-the-shelf ticket system. It holds your project record and documentation, lets you raise a support ticket with photos in under a minute, shows you the live status of anything we are working on, and keeps every quote and invoice in one place. When you call about a problem three years after handover, we are looking at your system’s actual configuration, not asking you to remember what was installed.