# Motorized Shades Experiences - How are yours?



## Northeast22

I have a big picture window that faces Southwest. The morning sun blasts into the house and directly in line with my Founten automated thermostat, causing the system to think its much warmer than it really is. So, I need to install automated roller/solar shades because the window is about 15 feet up on the wall. The shades will be battery operated and the window is about 7ftW x 6ftH.

The prices I'm getting for automated shades are off the charts. I looked at Lutron, Hunter Douglas, Qmotion and Somfy. I'm going to install myself, but the estimates are between $600 and $800!! This will be a stand alone unit, not tied into the home automation.

Would appreciate any recent experience with motorized shades that you would be able to share.


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## notek

Northeast22 said:


> I have a big picture window that faces Southwest. The morning sun blasts into the house and directly in line with my Founten automated thermostat, causing the system to think its much warmer than it really is. So, I need to install automated roller/solar shades because the window is about 15 feet up on the wall. The shades will be battery operated and the window is about 7ftW x 6ftH.
> 
> The prices I'm getting for automated shades are off the charts. I looked at Lutron, Hunter Douglas, Qmotion and Somfy. I'm going to install myself, but the estimates are between $600 and $800!!


These are good prices. One of the least expensive options here is probably Serena shades, and no-frills no-options roller shade with cheapest fabric will run you $580. You can check it out yourself at serenashades.com. Anything else from Lutron or Hunter Douglas is going to be more expensive than Serena.


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## FlyingDiver

Shades are just expensive, period. Good quality non-motorized of that size would probably be $400-500 anyway.


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## Mr.Tim

I bought a motorized solar shade for a giant window behind the whirpool tub (had to step in the tub to open/close blinds) at our last house. It was a while ago but IIRC I got it from blinds.com. I think it was 3 or 4 hundred with the battery powered roller and remote. The shade was shearweave.

Tim


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## Travisleo

Mr.Tim said:


> I bought a motorized solar shade for a giant window behind the whirpool tub (had to step in the tub to open/close blinds) at our last house. It was a while ago but IIRC I got it from blinds.com. I think it was 3 or 4 hundred with the battery powered roller and remote. The shade was shearweave.
> 
> Tim


Motorized shades are one of the coolest things we do! Clients love them and even though they are expensive, they have a tremendous amount of utility. Many of our clients have told us that is their favorite element of their "automated" home.


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## XJBaylor

Travisleo said:


> Motorized shades are one of the coolest things we do! Clients love them and even though they are expensive, they have a tremendous amount of utility. Many of our clients have told us that is their favorite element of their "automated" home.


We have had the same experience. Lots of Lutron, and now Qmotion, shades installed with 100% happy customers. For a standalone application you can't get wrong with either Lutron or Qmotion. Both are reliable and _very_ quiet.

Lutron offers the slim Pico remote or the ability to control with Caseta. Qmotion offers a +/-$100 "Timer Remote" that will allows you to program a schedule for the shade with a minimal investment.


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## ELECTRICDON

I have Qmotion in my house and I love them. 

The prices you were quoted were extremely fair if not lower than they should be. Pull the trigger my friend. It will be something you appreciate every day.


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## jmarty32

Northeast,

Shades don't have to be expensive. 

I purchased the motor from rollertrol for around $90.00 (i have the same size window as you) . You will provide the tubing and the fabric so i think in total i have spent around $150.00. I control it with a vera edge and it works great. I originally wanted to go battery but decided to instead get it hard wired. If you want to go battery just purchase a 12 volt home alarm battery and a solar power charger. Hope this helps.


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## Neurorad

My Lutron motorized shade is my favorite part of my kitchen remodel. Down at 8P, up at 6:30A, controlled with RA2.


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## sharding

I'm curious, how long do the batteries last in these things? I have a few where getting to them to replace the battery would be a major hassle, so if it is required too often it's going to be a problem. But the fact that no one has mentioned that issue so far leads me to believe they last a decent amount of time?


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## XJBaylor

sharding said:


> I'm curious, how long do the batteries last in these things? I have a few where getting to them to replace the battery would be a major hassle, so if it is required too often it's going to be a problem. But the fact that no one has mentioned that issue so far leads me to believe they last a decent amount of time?


3-5 years, assuming reasonably light fabric choice and operating the shade 4x/day.


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## Neurorad

My kitchen shade is hardwired. I don't want to deal with batteries.


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## max90034

I bought motorized outside shades with solar panel from Costco. Works well so far. They use Somfy motor so integration to Insteon was fine.


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## Northeast22

Thanks everyone for your input.

I decided to go with the Lutron Serena. They were offering a 20% discount and free shipping. I will install it next week and let you all know how I like them.


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## Neurorad

One of the reasons, I think, that Lutron shades are regarded as very high quality is because they're usually installed by very experienced installers. Anyone can hang a shade, but some experience helps ensure a top-notch final product.


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## notek

Neurorad said:


> One of the reasons, I think, that Lutron shades are regarded as very high quality is because they're usually installed by very experienced installers. Anyone can hang a shade, but some experience helps ensure a top-notch final product.


It isn't that hard to install a Lutron shade. It is literally as easy as screwing a bracket with few screws to the window/above window, and snapping the shade into place. Anyone can do it.

Where you need to be careful and take your time is when you measure, quote, and then place the order. Experience helps here.


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## Neurorad

notek said:


> It isn't that hard to install a Lutron shade. It is literally as easy as screwing a bracket with few screws to the window/above window, and snapping the shade into place. Anyone can do it.
> 
> Where you need to be careful and take your time is when you measure, quote, and then place the order. Experience helps here.


Absolutely. Specifying is more than half the difficulty.

I can't say enough good things about our installer. Super helpful, very experienced, great guy. Made the install easy, working very well with the other subs during the remodel.

Met him at the first local BLAST training 6 years ago, kept his card.


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## pgwalsh

Northeast22 said:


> Thanks everyone for your input.
> 
> I decided to go with the Lutron Serena. They were offering a 20% discount and free shipping. I will install it next week and let you all know how I like them.


I must have just missed that sale. I was thinking of ordering the same shades. One of the things I like about the Serena is that the battery pack is in the headrail.


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## blkicevic

I am getting excited about the arrival of my new shades and was curious if those with the lutron serena shades have experienced any issues since this post was created. I got a free smart bridge L-bdg2-wh and 20% off with mine and they should work with my Homekit and Alexa setup. I AM looking to get the smart bridge pro though but they seem to be in scarce supply. I almost purchased one on Amazon but when i asked to confirm that it was a PRO they replied that the add was a misprint. I believe I am going to need the pro for roomie/simple control integration.


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## MatteraDesignInc

Northeast22 said:


> I have a big picture window that faces Southwest. The morning sun blasts into the house and directly in line with my Founten automated thermostat, causing the system to think its much warmer than it really is. So, I need to install automated roller/solar shades because the window is about 15 feet up on the wall. The shades will be battery operated and the window is about 7ftW x 6ftH.
> 
> The prices I'm getting for automated shades are off the charts. I looked at Lutron, Hunter Douglas, Qmotion and Somfy. I'm going to install myself, but the estimates are between $600 and $800!! This will be a stand alone unit, not tied into the home automation.
> 
> Would appreciate any recent experience with motorized shades that you would be able to share.


Sounds about right. Just make sure the Motor is strong enough. 
Also, battery powered may be a little loud as compared to hardwired.

Thanks!


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## JT Babin

Northeast22 said:


> The prices I'm getting for automated shades are off the charts. I looked at Lutron, Hunter Douglas, Qmotion and Somfy. I'm going to install myself, but the estimates are between $600 and $800!! This will be a stand alone unit, not tied into the home automation.


This are really low prices... did you get these from a dealer or somewhere on the internet?


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## Northeast22

*UPDATE: Installation Complete*

So the installation was completed a few months ago. It was very easy. If you can install non-motorized shades, you can easily do this. My only hurdle was that I had to go rent some scaffolding from Home Depot. The shade was so wide that I wasn't able to do it with just one ladder. My shade took 8 D batteries. A lot, I know, but hopefully I won't have to replace for a few years.

I'm very happy with the Serena shades. I got the little Pico remote with it. The shades are very quiet. The remote works from 25-30 feet away.

All in all, a great DIY project. Like an earlier post, I think the only risk is that you measure correctly. I made sure I measured at 3 different locations because windows aren't all perfectly straight. The reason is so important is because these are custom made. And if you rush the measurements and they are off, you are stuck with an expensive shade that either won't work (too big for the space) or leaves wide gap. Good luck with yours if you decide to go for it.


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## blkicevic

What translucence are those? My serena pallette shades arrive thursday and I hope they are alittle more light blocking than yours. Not blackout but i believe they are around 3%.


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## Northeast22

blkicevic said:


> What translucence are those? My serena pallette shades arrive thursday and I hope they are alittle more light blocking than yours. Not blackout but i believe they are around 3%.


I think they were 3%. Its a large east facing window. So the morning sun blasts into the house. My thermostat was right in the path of the sun, so it jacked up the temp and caused my a/c to run hard. That problem is solved now. You can not see through the shade, but does allow light (not sun) through. Good luck with yours


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## NickTheGreat

Appreciate the update. We just got new windows installed, and I'm going to look into shades soon. 

I don't need them to move, but it would be pretty cool . . .


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## duckymomo

Very happy with the 25+ Lutron Serena motorized shades in my house. Very quiet and the wireless reliability has been 100% for me (along with the rest of the lutron system). They use regulated spectrum (unlike the other protocols), which is part of the reason for the reliability. I used to have Somfy motors which sounded like chainsaws compared to the Lutron ones. 

What really sold me was the pico remotes. IMHO they are very good looking and are the same size as standard wall switches so they can be easily added right next to existing switches. They also don't require any cutting into the wall like Somfy's wall controls. Plus, you use their nice little stands and put them on a table. I have a 4 button pico mounted on the wall in every room so they can be controlled off schedule as needed. I like the 4 button with shade engraving http://cdn3.volusion.com/krfyq.gnkuo/v/vspfiles/photos/Lutron-PJ2-4B-GBL-S31-2.jpg?1423081366 because you can set 4 different levels with just one button press. 

Most people don't realize that you don't need the arrows on the remote to set the shades at a non preprogrammed level. Any second button press on the remote stops the movement. So if the shades are open and you want to lower them to a specific point, just press the closed preset button and then press it again whenever it hits the level you want. 

I didn't want to deal with dealer programming/training at all, so I have a hybrid Maestro wireless and Caseta system. I get around Caseta's 50 device limit by using 2 hubs and I get around it's awful hardwired switch selection by using Maestro Wireless switches. You add the pico remotes directly to the Maestro Wireless switches(no hub involved). So let's say I'm leaving the house and I want to turn off every light, I press the off button on the pico and it turns off the selected caseta switches + all the Maestro switches it's programmed into. The Clear Connect range is great and works for me even 30ft outside my house. 

There are 2 group picos that are great because they save space. You can have one wallplate slot and control both lights and shades in a room etc.. Again you don't need the arrow buttons because you just press the raise/lower button a second time to stop it. 

I also get around their limited engraving options by ordering a pico they allow to be engraved, then moving the engraved buttons(or the circuit board into the engraved remote)into the remote that I need. This has been great for my 2-group models because they don't allow engraving on them.

PS: There's usually only a week or 2 between the serena 20% off sales, so just wait if there's not one at the moment.


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## notek

duckymomo said:


> I get around Caseta's 50 device limit by using 2 hubs


There is also an app for this, you can add both hubs to one app and program a button on your iPhone to toggle a scene on both hubs at the same time. Works great.


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## duckymomo

Another thing you can do with the Serana motorized shades, is order them with the manual mounting brackets, so they hang with less gap at the top and don't have the (imo ugly) plastic tab sticking out. Just be aware that the motor unit sticks up about 3/16" from the top of the shade headrail. You may need to put some washers under the manual brackets so that there's a gap between the motor unit and the jamb. You don't want it to be pressed up against anything that could make the whole shade headrail out of plumb. I used washers with all of mine anyway to level the brackets, but you can install it without washers first, then add them if needed. 

Also, be prepared for them to never actually ship the shades with the manual brackets despite ordering over the phone and adding it to the order notes. I think I was 0 for 3 and required a separate shipment with the brackets each time.


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## blkicevic

Got my shades in and had time to mount one. works great, looks great, simple install. Pairing with the Lutron bridge was crazy simple and it works both on/off network. Having problems with getting apple Homekit and siri to control them though, and i just found out that Amazon Alexa only works with lights and not the shades. Bummed

Update: well that didn't take long. Siri now controls the shades. I logged off of icloud and rebooted the smart bridge pro and the apple tv. Its all good now, yayyyyy!!! cmon amazon!


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## Bob 99

Question for those who have bought / installed the Serena shades. Are they available in custom widths? I'm looking at the price list, and it says 32", 36", 42" etc. When you actually order, are they still fixed?

I'm setting up multiple shades across a large bank of tall floor-to-ceiling windows in a condo. Want to make sure they'll fit perfectly.


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## blkicevic

Bob 99 said:


> Question for those who have bought / installed the Serena shades. Are they available in custom widths? I'm looking at the price list, and it says 32", 36", 42" etc. When you actually order, are they still fixed?
> 
> I'm setting up multiple shades across a large bank of tall floor-to-ceiling windows in a condo. Want to make sure they'll fit perfectly.


I ordered mine through Lowes at 20% off and a free bridge. Lowes took measurements and didn't ask if they were common or custom. I was informed that Lutron makes them from the order so i can only assume that custom is not an issue. Lutron subtracts 1/8 inch from the smallest width point of the 3 measurements for inside mount so keep this in mind. Lowes was cheaper than lutron and I had POM should something had gone wrong. + they substituted the smart bridge pro for the regular SB free with the order! 
of note: some lowes stores say that they do not carry lutron shades but they do. In the order list its there they just have to find it. and also have them shipped to your house and not the store!They will try to tack on delivery if you ship to store.
Mine work great, all 14 shades, and drive cats and dogs crazy!!!


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## notek

Bob 99 said:


> Question for those who have bought / installed the Serena shades. Are they available in custom widths?


Yes. Down to 1/8" or so, both height and width. Take a look at the order form, it's all there.


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## Bob 99

Thanks for your advice, I ordered 5x shades for my condo this week. I will report back once they're installed! (2-3 weeks.)


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## JAHENDRIX

I have 6 motorized blinds from Select Blinds. I didn’t do enough research before hand and thought they used Somfy motors/controls, but it turns out they use Simplicity. While they work fine so far with the remote that came with them, there doesn’t seem to be a bridge available to tie them into home automation. Does anyone here any experience with these controls?

I currently have Lutron Caséta lights with the Smart Bridge Pro 2 and I wish I had bought Serena shades in the first place.


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## JediSpork

This is something I have been looking into as well and came across a few threads here on avs. If you have a existing shade you can buy motors from rollertrol. One of the models has a battery built inside the tube itself. The basic 12v models they offer look identical to what you can buy on ebay for $50. The small motors are for 1 inch tubes and the larger for 1.5.

The best shades use rollease tubing and have the fabric secured into it. There are so many different brands but its more about the tubing used, quality of fabric, and clutch or the electric motor that you want. There are actually kits online with this tubing and authentic rollease clutches if you make your own. 

I'm a big fan of quality roller shades. Imo they are the best window covering unless you have some nice shutters. I could only find a few sites that specifically state their shades are made from rollease components. I ordered 3 of them for now. I haven't decided if I want to motorize or just use the loop chain. If you have a rollease clutch most people are very happy with that setup and you can secure the chain for safety. I don't think I could accomplish a clean install if I wired up motors and at the moment I feel it would make my window shades unnecessarily complicated.


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## SMHarman

JAHENDRIX said:


> I have 6 motorized blinds from Select Blinds. I didn’t do enough research before hand and thought they used Somfy motors/controls, but it turns out they use Simplicity. While they work fine so far with the remote that came with them, there doesn’t seem to be a bridge available to tie them into home automation. Does anyone here any experience with these controls?
> 
> I currently have Lutron Caséta lights with the Smart Bridge Pro 2 and I wish I had bought Serena shades in the first place.


I'm playing with the morning rising 12v DC motors on Amazon. 

I cracked open the remote Control. Basically for Control4 I can solder 6 wires to up down and stop on the pcb, connect to 3 relays and automate away. 

I also bought the 5 channel remote as a backup. I have a couple of Windows I need to reset the drop height spring and fall when the window aircondotioners are removed. 

Bought the somfy 8 battery tube to power these. If I lived in Romex world I would have got the 90-250 v ones but as in wall 110 needs to be BX here I decided against those. 

The one in our bedroom.witj a 90 in drop is hooked to a spare 12v led power supply. 

Working great as designed. Next for the soldier project to make the automation box. Should be done for under $100 a Windows.


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## peter144

Northeast22 said:


> I have a big picture window that faces Southwest. The morning sun blasts into the house and directly in line with my Founten automated thermostat, causing the system to think its much warmer than it really is. So, I need to install automated roller/solar shades because the window is about 15 feet up on the wall. The shades will be battery operated and the window is about 7ftW x 6ftH.
> 
> The prices I'm getting for automated shades are off the charts. I looked at Lutron, Hunter Douglas, Qmotion and Somfy. I'm going to install myself, but the estimates are between $600 and $800!! This will be a stand alone unit, not tied into the home automation.
> 
> Would appreciate any recent experience with motorized shades that you would be able to share.


My experience with Somfy automated shades has not been good. I just posted this elsewhere but this may be the correct place:


SOMFY AUTOMATED WINDOW SHADE INTERMITTENT FAILURE

We are looking for help with a SOMFY Windows Shade issue.

We have three SOMFY shades in three adjoining rooms in a condo apartment. Each is plugged into a 110-volt outlet and each is controlled by a separate remote control that can usually operate the shades from across the room.

On a random basis – which could be once a day, or once a week or longer – or perhaps at times we are not aware of – the shades stop working! Pushing the remote button does nothing. Sometimes, we can operate a shade by holding the remote right up against the power-antenna wire, but sometimes that doesn’t work either. 

Then, after an unpredictable period of time – could be hours or more than a day - , the operation returns back to normal. The building engineer says that nobody else has reported this issue.

Our dealer has been out several times and cannot diagnose the problem. We have talked with several people at SOMFY who believe that some piece of electrical equipment is interfering with SOMFY’s 133 MhZ remote signal. But based on our location, it isn’t an airport, radio station or nearby alarm system. They refuse to admit that this is a systemic flaw but cannot resolve the issue which has been recurring for years to the point that we are out of warranty.

Their best suggestion is that, at our expense, we have the dealer replace the motors with “four pole” motors so that an override switch can be added and used when the remote system fails. While we will price this out, we are reluctant to sink any more money in, what has been for us, a defective product. 

What we would like to know is:

-Has anyone else had a similar issue with Somfy random failures?
-If so, did you find out what caused it?
-Even if you’ve never had a failure, any thoughts about the cause?
-What should we do now?

Thank you.


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## drunkpenguin

Does anyone make an easy install motor that can control just the twisty part of the blinds? I would love to do something like this throughout the house but I don't want to replace 15 blinds when we already have nice ones. We never ever pull the blinds up, all I would need is the part that twists them open and closed.


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## ahard

drunkpenguin said:


> Does anyone make an easy install motor that can control just the twisty part of the blinds? I would love to do something like this throughout the house but I don't want to replace 15 blinds when we already have nice ones. We never ever pull the blinds up, all I would need is the part that twists them open and closed.


Somfy. There maybe others but I'm not aware of them. I've looked at the Somfy motors for my 10 blinds bc I want to incorporate them in to my home automation system using Somfy's ZRTS Z-wave module. The motors will run you about $125 and a battery wand to power each motor is about $25. There are various Somfy remote controls that you can purchase to control the open and close function of the slats. Those remotes will run you anywhere from approximately $40 to $65.


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## SMHarman

drunkpenguin said:


> Does anyone make an easy install motor that can control just the twisty part of the blinds? I would love to do something like this throughout the house but I don't want to replace 15 blinds when we already have nice ones. We never ever pull the blinds up, all I would need is the part that twists them open and closed.


Tl;Dr. You can buy a whole new or new parts to motorize and transfer the fabric. 

Depending on existing roller tube size you can retrofit a motor. 

You will need to change both ends hardware that attached the blind to the building to that for the motor as well as add the motor. 

If the roller is too small you can get a new tube as well as new motors and then that tube will have a line of tape on it. You unroll the old manual blind and tape the shade to the new blind. The rolls have rib lines on them so you tape the fabric level.


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## Ziba Ji

Did any one had success integrating Hunter Douglas Power rise platinum, cordless, motorized blinds with Control 4?


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## raido

I have SOMA Smart Shades installed and works great so far. Solar panel was included and I am running them on scheduled routine. Now I am waiting the Alexa voice control which they promised in August. 

Hope this helps.


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## Fluid15

Neurorad said:


> My Lutron motorized shade is my favorite part of my kitchen remodel. Down at 8P, up at 6:30A, controlled with RA2.


Neurorad - was there any close competition to Lutron before you selected this? Also curious if you have this integrated into any HA, if so which brand?


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## jackforceus

Hello All,
I'm building a sunroom which have 6 (22 * 71 inches) skylights and I would like to hardwire for the automated shades. I have 2 days to complete the wiring.
1). What kind of wiring do I use to power these shades?
2). I would like to build these shades myself rather that going with brands like lutron, Serena etc. What all the materials I need to get to do a DIY automated shade.
3). How do I control them? Do I need to install a switch? What kind?

Pls help

Thanks.


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## SMHarman

Add 4 core speaker wire 4/12 and a cat cable. That should be enough cable to control any blind.


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## jackforceus

SMHarman said:


> Add 4 core speaker wire 4/12 and a cat cable. That should be enough cable to control any blind.


Thanks a lot SMHarman. I have a 14 gauge speaker wire and cat6 and hopefully that can take care of the wiring. Can you advice on my other 2 questions?

2). I would like to build these shades myself rather that going with brands like lutron, Serena etc. What all the materials I need to get to do a DIY automated shade.
3). How do I control them? Do I need to install a switch? What kind?


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## SMHarman

jackforceus said:


> Thanks a lot SMHarman. I have a 14 gauge speaker wire and cat6 and hopefully that can take care of the wiring. Can you advice on my other 2 questions?
> 
> 2). I would like to build these shades myself rather that going with brands like lutron, Serena etc. What all the materials I need to get to do a DIY automated shade.
> 3). How do I control them? Do I need to install a switch? What kind?


Those are tough questions. I'm guessing no automation system you want to interface to at present. 

Av outlet allows you to build your own.

You can get motors they sell or another motor. 

I got morning rising motors from Amazon. 

Depending on the blind depends on how you control. The morning rising have rf remotes.


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