Pre-wire for motorized shades/blinds

P

pablito

Member
Hi:

I've been looking into motorized shades for my pre-wire next week. My intention was to follow the general advice of the Wiring 102 guide and run one 18/2 stranded for power and one 22/4 solid for possible control, but I thought I'd do a bit of checking nevertheless.

I managed to check out some Hunter Douglas battery operated shades at a local shop in the area and I was quite impressed. They were quiet and operated nicely. That said, it isn't clear to me that their hard-wired solution uses the same motor/mechanics as the battery operated version so I'll try and check on that further. Also, they don't sound all that HA friendly straight out of the box as they apparently use a combo IR and RF remote. The hard-wired solution has a wall switch, but I don't much care for them.

Anyway, as there don't seem to be all that many posts on the subject, I thought I'd ask for peoples general thoughts, experiences and recommendations. Does anyone have the hard-wired HDs with Platinum technology? Any other options I should look at?

Paul
 
I looked into this as well...motorized shades seem quite expensive...and unless you're sure you're going to do this do you really also want to spend the money on the pre-wire for it?

Considering we know there's battery and IR options out there i decided not to bother with it.

I know pre-wiring for it is the right thing to do, but if you can't do the pre-wire yourself and have to pay a contractor to do it then the extra cost versus an extra hour of your own time becomes harder to stomach.
 
Yeah I've had the same thoughts. I've been bouncing back and forth between doing it and not doing it. I am doing the wiring myself so that aspect is less of an issue and I'd really hate to miss my chance. My wife went a bit nuts with windows and I see powered shades as a must in at least a few locations... or I'll lose my mind with all the opening and closing: "Blind goes up, Blind goes down, Blind goes up, Blind goes down..." :)

I've mainly been concerned about running the correct wire for the job, length of run, voltage drop, etc. I just spoke to a local guy that makes shades using Somfy motors and he says they use 18/2 solid to power them and that his max lengths are around the 35' range. Yikes... not what I had planned as some of my runs are near 100'. The use of solid copper rather surprised me also. My intention was to power them all back from a central location for simplicity. This may not have been a great idea. I'll be making a few more calls before deciding.
 
We put up a couple of the battery powered Hunter Douglas units where they are by stairs to the basement and hard to get to. They were purchased about 4 years ago and only are IR. I have contemplated using an IR blaster mounted across the room to control them. Shouldn't be a big deal.

I would really like to have hard wired power though. About once a year I have to set up scaffolding to get to the batteries. Drilling up through the casing into the attic would be easy if there weren't small arched windows above them. With a little plastic tubing I could make something that fits into the battery compartment for power and not have to mod the unit. As it is we usually clean the windows at the same time so it isn't just for the batteries.

They work well. We did have a problem with one where it didn't stop in the full up position after changing the batteries and pulled out the lift cords. Probably something I did when changing batteries. It was still under warranty so it was sent back to them to fix and we didn't get charged. I wouldn't want to have to restring one.

I would recommend running wire where ever you think you might need it or at least run conduit so you can pull wires later. It is MUCH easier before the drywall is up. We were our own general contractor though and I did all my own wiring so it was just time and materials - I went a little crazy in some spots but haven't regretted it. I have used a number of conduits and wires I put in "just in case." And I still have had to snake wire in a few places I didn't do up front - no way to think of everything and not practical either.
 
Oh, almost forgot... Take lots of pictures of the wiring and plumbing before the drywall goes up! When you have to poke more holes later it really helps to know whats in there that you can't see.
 
JimS said:
Oh, almost forgot... Take lots of pictures of the wiring and plumbing before the drywall goes up! When you have to poke more holes later it really helps to know whats in there that you can't see.
Click to expand...

I took photos of our house being built 25 years ago - and still pull them out periodically when I need to "look" inside a wall.

It's really worth it!
 
JimS said:
We put up a couple of the battery powered Hunter Douglas units where they are by stairs to the basement and hard to get to. They were purchased about 4 years ago and only are IR. I have contemplated using an IR blaster mounted across the room to control them. Shouldn't be a big deal.

I would really like to have hard wired power though. About once a year I have to set up scaffolding to get to the batteries. Drilling up through the casing into the attic would be easy if there weren't small arched windows above them. With a little plastic tubing I could make something that fits into the battery compartment for power and not have to mod the unit. As it is we usually clean the windows at the same time so it isn't just for the batteries.

They work well. We did have a problem with one where it didn't stop in the full up position after changing the batteries and pulled out the lift cords. Probably something I did when changing batteries. It was still under warranty so it was sent back to them to fix and we didn't get charged. I wouldn't want to have to restring one.

I would recommend running wire where ever you think you might need it or at least run conduit so you can pull wires later. It is MUCH easier before the drywall is up. We were our own general contractor though and I did all my own wiring so it was just time and materials - I went a little crazy in some spots but haven't regretted it. I have used a number of conduits and wires I put in "just in case." And I still have had to snake wire in a few places I didn't do up front - no way to think of everything and not practical either.
Click to expand...

Depending on how your unit looks / voltage of the unit

you might be able to do what I am going to do with a bunch of my sensors / battery powered blinds...

I'm going to get a bunch of those cheapo solar powered calculators. Then you put those in series to create the necessary voltage level. Shove that through a shottkey diode (or a PFET that feeds on itself so you can eliminate the voltage loss). It'll trickle the power to the batteries such that you can leave in the alkalines. They won't get a LOT of power...but you will get it all day. And since you are only operating the shades ... say 2x per day...your batteries might last even longer.

If you need help with the circuit, let me know. I've got one circuit nearing completion. I can take some photos of the cells and how to wire them together for you. Right now I'm just trying to figure out where my SHOTKEY diodes were put by the movers (I typically use the PFET solution for higher current devices then what I'm working on now)

--Dan
 
JeffCharger said:
JimS said:
Oh, almost forgot... Take lots of pictures of the wiring and plumbing before the drywall goes up! When you have to poke more holes later it really helps to know whats in there that you can't see.
Click to expand...

I took photos of our house being built 25 years ago - and still pull them out periodically when I need to "look" inside a wall.

It's really worth it!
Click to expand...


I almost missed my chance for recording it all. I ended up walking around the house in the dark (no power) with a video camera that had a light on it.

Worked quite well, and since it's video you can narrate what you're looking at which is sure to help at some point. Espeically some tricky spot where it's complicated i was able to point at a few things and described what does what.
 
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