Smart Shades

Overview

Smart Shades are one of the best home automation projects.

Blinds have horizontal slats (wood, plastic or resin), and shades are a cloth. The type of cloth is key in selecting a shade. In bedrooms and the movie room, I have room darkening or blackout blinds. In common areas (kitchen, family room, playroom, basement and library), the shades let in some light when closed.

Another consideration is color. Where multiple shades can be seen, I chose to use the same color blind. 

Smart Shades can be set to open at certain times of day, or when certain conditions are met. At all times of year, the sunshine in Colorado can get very hot, and in the winter, nighttime can get crazy cold. It was -17 F (-27C) last night. To conserve energy, I have the routines set to open the shades in common areas at different times in different seasons.  And close the shades at dusk.

I set up my smart blinds to use Amazon Echo routines. Amazon Echo routines can be disabled or modified.

Configurations

Smart Blinds come in many different configurations. The first ones I bought from Amazon were from Graywind. The ones I selected, in keeping with my Wi-Fi only policy, were Wi-Fi controlled. Wi-Fi uses more power than simpler protocols like Bluetooth and need to be charged more often. The mistake was to add a wired plug. Wired blinds require an outlet or an extension cord. Obviously, the extension cord doesn't look good hanging down from a window. My intent was to add outlets near the blinds. However, adding outlets on outside walls is very costly. 

My second set of blinds, from Hunter-Douglas, use a Bluetooth controller to communicate to the blinds, and Amazon Echo communicates to the controller via Wi-Fi. My second mistake was paying twice the price to get these professionally installed. The professional installation was surprisingly bad. I had to argue with them and ship them back twice. The first time thy were incorrectly measured and the second time they didn't work properly.

I thought recharging the batteries would be a pain. The batteries recharge within a day, last several months depending on usage and use a cord that plugs into the shade to recharge.

My recommendation going forward is to choose Graywind, self-install, Bluetooth and battery-operated shades.

Installation and Setup

Follow the directions provided with shades. The installation and setup are easy. The installation requires a tape measure and Phiilips head screwdriver to install two brackets. The shade is pushed into the brackets and then clips onto the shade.