What are the Benefits of Motorized Blinds?

Many homeowners who are considering motorized options for their window treatments have their interest piqued by some aspect of a motorized blinds solution but aren’t quite sure if that warrants the investment.

Here, we examine some of the top benefits that are associated with motorized window treatments, with an eye towards helping you make an informed decision about what benefits you can expect from your motorized shades or blinds.

Convenience

It’s hard to rank the benefits of having motorized blinds or shades in your home, but if we had to pick one benefit that unites nearly every motorized blind owner, it would be the convenience factor.

In recent years, the advances in home automation have become even smarter and even more intuitive. You can purchase a robot to wash and sweep your floors, tell your dishwasher to start washing after the guests have all gone home and you're in bed, and even program your thermostat to keep your home at your ideal temperature. Shouldn’t your window coverings get in on the home automation party as well? Luckily, you’ll find they've joined the party in a big way.

Motorizing your window treatments allows you to automate a repetitive task (sometimes in hard-to-reach areas!) that is key to the comfort of your home. Your motorized blinds allow you to adjust your window treatments with the touch of a button, at home and remotely. Use one remote or smart device to control all of your motorized window treatments, or schedule your blind adjustments to automatically occur throughout the day.

Safety

Many devices nowadays tout cordlessness as a selling point. Your cordless vacuum cleaner prevents tangles and trip-ups, while your cordless mouse makes for a tidier workspace. Most motorized blinds, (including roller blinds, solar blinds, draperies, and pleated blinds) are also cordless – but these missing cords offer up a lot more than just convenience.

The cords used to operate traditional blinds and shades can be a hazard to children and pets. They seem like fun playthings, when in reality, they are choking and strangling hazards. Your motorized blinds are 100% cord and chain-free and are the safe and convenient solution for all members of your family, two and four-legged alike.

Create a Smarter Home

With smart home solutions gaining more popularity, it's likely you have a voice assistant, smart thermostat, smart fridge, or other connected devices already in your home. Motorized blinds, shades, and draperies can interact with these other smart products, creating easy home automation and making your home feel that much smarter. No matter where you are on the smart home spectrum, from novice to tech wiz, there's a smart shade solution for you. Smart shading works with easy-to-use voice assistants and integrates with more robust third-party whole-home automation systems. 

You can create scenes to move multiple smart home products at once to maximize convenience. These scenes can be created in a smartphone app or even within your favorite voice assistant. Imagine saying "Alexa, good morning!" and watching as your shades rise, your lights turn on, and your morning playlist begins. Or saying "Alexa, movie time!" and watching as your motorized curtains close, your lights dim, and the TV comes to life. Smart shades are an important part of the modern smart home, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of natural light at your command. 

Energy Efficiency 

If you are interested in maximizing your home’s energy efficiency, motorized blinds may be just what you’ve been looking for. Opening and shutting your blinds is about much more than simply blocking or letting light into a room. Put your blinds to work for you and you can realize real savings when your energy bill arrives. How?

It may feel counterintuitive to draw the shades on a gorgeous summer afternoon. After all, you suffered through winter just begging for the sun to come out. However, what is actually counterintuitive is to run the air-conditioning or fan at full blast at the same time that you are allowing the sun to stream into your home. Similarly, in the winter, leverage the heat of the sun to warm your home and you may find yourself very happy with the savings! Your motorized blinds provide you with a quick and convenient way to save energy and money, all while creating a more pleasant home environment. Better yet, if you use a sensor or timer with your motorized blinds, you can automate your blinds to do this all for you, so you don't even have to think about it.

Security

When you leave town for vacation or a long weekend, do you stop the mail or ask a neighbor to pick up the morning paper? If you do, you are probably aware that you are taking simple yet important steps to make your home a little safer. Motorizing your window blinds can be a similar way to increase the appearance of someone being at home: When something about your home changes, be it a light or the position of your shades, it may make it appear as if someone has recently been in the home. This could make it less of a target and may also prevent someone from taking an unauthorized peek.

When you are away, place your blinds on a timer, or simply change the position from your smart device a few times a week. Using app control, you can even set "vacation mode" for your motorized blinds and shades so they move throughout the day to mimic that lived-in look to keep your home safe. (As we discussed above, in order to reap the most from your motorized blinds, ideally you would be raising and lowering the shades multiple times in time with the sun, so increased security is just an added benefit!) 

Maximize the Space in Your Home

While motorized window treatments can’t actually make your home larger, they can make all the spaces in your home more useable. This is perhaps even more valuable! A living room that doubles as a home theater? A bedroom that is light tight at night but lets the sun in just in time to wake you up gently? Motorized insect screens that make your porch an enjoyable outdoor space? Motorized blinds make it easy for the spaces in your home to do double duty, with just the touch of a button. And that’s just the indoor spaces!

Adding motorized outdoor shading solutions to your outdoor spaces lets you create defined spaces that aren’t limited by weather. Motorized pergolas and awnings are fantastic ways to maximize the comfort and usability of your outdoor space. Want sun? Retract your awning or shades on your pergola. When you don’t want sun, close the covering and you’ll have a comfortable, shaded area. Like your interior motorized solutions, exterior motorized solutions can be controlled with a remote or smart device. Relaxing in the yard never felt so good!

Protect Your Furniture, Floors, and Art

So far, we have discussed the ways that motorized blinds can benefit your home in terms of convenience, safety and security, comfort, and energy efficiency. One additional benefit that motorized blinds can confer is protecting furniture, floors, and valuable art from damaging sunlight.

When the sun streams through your windows, it may provide a comfy patch for your kitty to sleep in, but over time it can wash out all of the vibrant colors that find themselves in its path. While you certainly don’t want to live in a dark cave, lowering your blinds during the brightest part of the day can prolong the life of your furniture, rugs, and even your wall paint! Sentimental family photos will also be protected from unintentional aging.

Of course, all window treatments worth their salt can protect the interior of your home from sun damage. However, many people simply neglect to change the position of their blinds to account for the position of the sun because it is both repetitive and boring and requires you to be home in order to do so. Motorized blinds take care of these problems automatically and are your perfect partner when it comes to protecting furniture and valuables from sun damage.

Now that you know a bit more about the benefits you can expect to see when you install motorized blinds in your home or outdoor space, it’s time to do a bit more exploring before you sign on the dotted line. If you think motorized blinds are in your future, it makes sense to start thinking about budget, whether you want to motorize all of the window treatments in your home or just certain rooms, and where this project falls in your home remodel or renovation budget. With so many benefits on the horizon, you’ll soon love your home even more! 

Ready to get started with smart shades? Connect with a Somfy dealer to begin!