Building a home with some large windows and considering automated shades. Anyone have any recs?

I put Eve motion blinds on my west facing windows and I have zero complaints. They're much more affordable than the Lutron variety and do everything I want them to do. They don't quite all move perfectly together (more like within 0.5s) like Lutron claims, but I have them set to lower and raise on a schedule every day where I was way too lazy to do that with the manual versions I replaced. The batteries seem to last about 8-9 months before needing to be charged with daily use on 8' windows.

I have the Lutron and like them. Work well with Alexa unlike most of the other automated crap I have all over the house.

Thanks for the input.

I have Somfy solar screens with remote that will fully enclose my patio. As you know I live on the surface of the sun and I'm very happy with them.

Any thoughts on hardwired vs battery operated? We're under construction now and need to figure out which product we're using if hardwiring. It would only make sense hardwiring the living room and master BR as those are the rooms with multiple large windows that could be a slight PITA raising/lowering every day. We're not big on the whole home automation thing. It's really hard to swallow the cost of this now while having a long way to go home for home build...so we're considering just waiting to construction is over and we're in the house to figure it all out (thus would mean battery operated if automated).

We're not so much worried about sun protection (major windows all face east and north - almost none face west) as privacy and room darkening in bedrooms. This is also a second home and won't be occupied for many months at a time.

Appreciate yalls input.

We put Battery Operated Hunter Douglas in all the windows we wanted to open daily.

Don't hard wire, batteries take seconds to change and lasted over a year on one charge.

I like having the shades open and automatic openers are a treat.

They were giving energy savings federal tax credit in 2023

We also have battery Hunter Douglas and like them a lot. The batteries really do last for a long time and they have been flawless for almost 3 years now. Which means they'll break about 2 minutes after I post this...

Add my vote to the Hunter Douglas side.

I moved in to a house with existing old battery operated blinds. The battery wand and wire were damaged.

Hunter Douglas customer service helped me figure out what parts I needed and got them to me for free.

Love our auto shades. Do it.

We have smartwings with matter motors, they work great and much lower cost than HD. We had Hunter Douglas blinds before, non-automated and didn't think the added cost was worth it.

agdoc2001 said:

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I have the Lutron

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Who did you use for the Lutron shades?