It's the first question anyone asks when they start thinking about a smart home: wired or wireless? The honest answer is that there is no "best system" in absolute terms. There is only the right system for your home — and it depends on what you want to achieve and, above all, on your starting point: walls open, or house finished. Here's how to choose without regretting it later.
Renovating? A wired bus is a rock-solid foundation
When the walls are open — a new build or a major renovation — the soundest choice is to run a bus cable alongside the electrical wiring: a simple twisted pair that carries the commands for lights, blinds, climate and sensors. The reference standard is KNX, and it's an open standard backed by hundreds of manufacturers. That matters more than any feature list: if a brand disappears in ten years, or simply stops convincing you, you swap its switches or actuators for another KNX manufacturer's and the rest of the system doesn't even notice. No lock-in, no proprietary ecosystem to depend on.
The second reason is reliability. One simple principle should drive every good project: the switch and the light must work always — even if the Wi-Fi drops, even if a manufacturer's cloud is having a bad day. On a bus system the home's essential functions travel on the wire, and there are wired installations that have needed a single reboot in four years of service — and not even through any fault of their own. On top of that rock-solid base sits the "intelligent" layer: supervision, scenes, the automations that connect lights, curtains, audio, climate and security. If the foundation is solid, everything you build on it is too.
House finished? Wireless is the smart retrofit
If, on the other hand, your home is lived-in, freshly furnished, or you simply have no intention of chasing cables through the walls, wireless is the way to go. Sensors, actuators and controls talk over radio using open protocols such as Zigbee and, increasingly, Matter — the standard created precisely so that devices from different manufacturers can work together. No building work, quick installation, and the freedom to start small and grow one room at a time.
The trade-off? A little more upkeep: the odd battery to replace, an occasional reboot, the chance that a passing interference makes a sensor skip a beat. Nothing dramatic — think of a small chore every few months instead of every few years, repaid many times over by the comfort the system gives you on the other 363 days. And the two worlds are not mutually exclusive: on a wired base you'll often add radio sensors exactly where running a cable makes no sense — the best of both.
| Wired (KNX bus) | Wireless (Matter / Zigbee) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability | Maximum: commands travel on the wire, years without a reboot | Good, but with batteries to change and the occasional restart |
| Disruption | Needs building work: done with the walls open | Zero building work: fits a finished, furnished home |
| Cost | Higher upfront, but modest extra while the site is already open | Gradual entry: start small, expand over time |
| Independence | Open standard: change manufacturer without redoing the system | Good with Matter and Zigbee; beware proprietary ecosystems |
| When to choose it | Renovation or new build | Retrofit: lived-in home, no site works |
The golden rule: start from the goal, not the product
And here is the point worth more than any technical comparison. The most common mistake isn't picking the wrong protocol — it's letting the installer steer you towards the only system they know, perhaps because it's faster for them to fit or simply more convenient for them. The correct path runs the other way: first define the goal — what the house should do for you — and the starting conditions — open walls or finished home — and only then choose the technology that fits.
So be demanding when you ask for a quote. Have them explain why they're proposing that system and not another; ask how it behaves when the network goes down, who will be able to service it in ten years, what happens if the manufacturer changes course. A well-designed, integrated smart home doesn't cost much more than a "dumb" one built with the same switches: the difference is made upstream, in the design — not in the price list.
The hidden bonus: consuming energy when it's cheapest
There's also an advantage that rarely gets talked about. Energy tariffs increasingly reward those who consume in the cheaper time bands — typically at night and on holidays. A well-designed smart home shifts consumption on its own: it starts the washing machine, charges the robots or the car when energy costs less, without you having to be there or remember. It's not the reason you build a smart home — but it's a real saving that quietly shows up on the bill, every month.
Interiors and technology, designed together
One last aspect — the one we see every day in our projects: a smart home succeeds when it is designed together with the interior, not bolted on at the end. Where the bus runs, where the sensors sit, how the switch plates dialogue with the wall finishes, how the motorised curtains enter the scenes: these decisions belong to the interior design project, not the electrical panel. That's why at Mariani we combine in-house know-how with a network of certified system integrators in our portfolio: you see one coherent project, where aesthetics and technology support each other. And if you want to experience your future home before it's built — scenes included — you can literally walk through it with our Immersive VR Project.
Want to dive deeper into the smart home, the Mariani way?
On our dedicated smart home page you'll find our complete approach: wired, wireless, scenes, integration with the interior and the partners we work with.
Discover the Mariani Smart Home →We have been designing interiors since 1928: three generations of craft, today also at the service of the home that does things for you. If you're weighing up a system — wired, wireless or hybrid — let's talk before the walls close: that's where everything is decided.