When it comes to home automation, I like to start with the big items that impact my life every day. This could be the small details, like a coffee maker that brews me a cup every morning, or something big like the temperature in my home. One of these big items is my windows, and this is for multiple reasons. First, they contribute a lot to the temperature in your house. They also affect your privacy. And, if you have a lot of windows in your house like I do, you spend time every day opening and closing all the blinds.
Thanks to home automation, there are ways for me to fix all three of these things with smart window blinds. Even though there are dozens of options, here are the top smart window blind options on the market, from the simple to the complex.
Basic
The simplest option is basic remote-control shades. This is ideal for someone who is on a tight budget, doesn’t need a lot of features, or is primarily looking for shades to cover high, difficult to access windows. Relying on a battery power motor (which means no wiring or electrical outlets required), you simply press a button to open or close the blinds.
A Step Further
If you’d like your smart window blinds to do a little more, you may like window blinds that not only are remote-controlled, but can also be programmed to close and open on a schedule. Using an app on your smartphone, you can create a schedule for each of your window blinds and program them to open and shut at a specific time each day. This means, every morning your blinds can automatically open to help wake you up, and they’ll close at night when it gets dark.
Advanced
If you’re like me, you’re looking for the best of the best. Luckily, there’s a system already available that provides everything you could want in your smart window blinds. Beyond being able to open and close from a remote control or a smart device and create a schedule, you can check on your blinds from any location. If you’re on vacation, you can double check to see which blinds are open and which aren’t. You can even connect them with your house’s security so, from one location, you can see which doors and windows are open and which are closed.
Photo by: Kevin Jaako
