Stumped on how to make your dumb blinds smart? Quite frankly, the installment of smart appliances and devices provides a plethora of benefits, and smart blinds are no different.
Some of the tools available for making your dumb blinds smart include:
- Blind Engine Kit and
- MySmartBlinds Automation Kit
We’ll be looking at these in better detail throughout this article. I guess you may also want to know some of the huge benefits related to the smart blinds like energy savings, and I have all these covered and more.
Benefits of Smart Blinds
Convenience
With the setup of the smart blinds, you do not have to bear the responsibility of shutting and opening them.
You can now carry out these acts by controlling them from an app on a smartphone, a control, or perhaps even a button. It is possible to decrease solar gain and avoid heat loss by covering the chimney at certain periods.
Ordinarily, we are apt to forget opening and closing the blinds even as we get absorbed in other essential activities. Smart blinds are able to initiate actions in specific situations.
Energy-savings
As you can expect, when the retractable blinds link with your smart home program, you can reduce energy costs. Getting these smart blinds will lower the amount of energy the HVAC system absorbs.
Even the smart blinds have sunlight sensors and also can handle response based on the temperature readings. Once the sun goes down and the rooms get cooler, the blinds will close on their own.
As a result, HVAC usage is less. During day conditions, the smart blinds will stay open to allow the sunlight to enter the warmth and room the living room naturally.
Smart Home Integrations
Since you can know, after reading the points mentioned previously, that smart blinds are similar to smart thermostats. These smart blinds have a direct impact on smart home improvement.
Even the smart thermostats work through the entire daytime, calculating the warmth of the house and turning on the air conditioning or the smart blinds consequently.
Whenever you have the smart blinds, then the thermostat may close the blinds rather than turning to the ac, or the vice-versa. These smart blinds play a vital part in thermoregulation.
Smart Lighting
It is possible to pair the smart blinds with the smart light systems. The smart blinds may maximize the quantity of daylight your home requires.
So, once the smart blinds are open, the smart lights turn off. When the smart blinds close, the smart lights turn on. While this happens, you are saving on your own energy expenses and are again saving on the unnecessary use of lights.
Increasing the R-value of Your Home
Don’t have a smart home? No problem. Installing smart blinds will be beneficial. It can add to the insulation value windows of one’s home.
As an example, the conventional honeycomb and conventional roller blinds provide you with a value of more than 4, which will be a lot more compared to the usual double glazed window.
In addition, you may also select the motorized curtains. Once you’re done, they are going to add an insulating material layer to the windows of your home.
Enhanced Safety
If you’ve got young children at home, you’ll regard the smart blinds as a blessing. Since these blinds are cordless, you do not experience the ordeal of keeping the strings from the reach of children. Some of those modern smart blinds supply an additional level of security.
There’s a really smart blind which links to the smoke alert system when it detects a fire in your home, which helps in timely intervention and also considerably minimizing damage.
Security
For the interest of the security of our home, we do not leave any stone unturned. Even the smart home has inevitably enhanced the home security measures, and the smart blinds additionally contribute to it.
Since you’re able to control the opening and closing of these sunglasses in a remote place, it gives the impression to outsiders or even trespassers somebody is in.
Again, when the smart blinds incorporate with the smart house system, you are able to cause the blinds to close down if there are no occupants inside the home and open whenever they return, with the assistance of both Geo-Fencing and a smartphone.
Inexpensive
There are numerous solutions available on the market. But, most are expensive. Here, you can convert your ordinary blinds into smart ones, and the price of doing so won’t burn a hole into your pocket.
So, as you can see, the setup of smart blinds is a smart choice Whether or Not You’re living in a smart house or not
The Best Way to Make Your Dumb Blinds Smart
Once you make your dumb blinds smart, you are actually reverse-engineering them.
The good thing is you have many options to select from.
Furthermore, keep your fingers crossed, as we’re simply watching the dawn of smart home systems.
Hopefully, you won’t have to wait overly long to get new and advanced choices. For the time being, you can select from the Blind Engine Kit, the MySmartBlinds Automation Kit, Purchasing New Smart Blinds, and the DIY Guide.
Blind Engine Kit 
The very first option I’ll cover here would be your Blind Engine kit. Blind Engine started out on Kickstarter and has become a well-respected brand across the smart housing community.
It’s not really that hard to comprehend just why people are so deeply in love with the idea of having motorized blinds and colors for their chambers. Obviously, installing your own motorized blinds is a huge pain in the ass, and may get very costly when you have a lot of windows that have blinds you want to switch over.
Enter Blind Engine, which doesn’t seem to get a ton of great reviews though, and I can only assume that it is due to user miscalculation as they have worked just fine in my tests.
But it does have the caveat that you know what kind of blinds that they encourage, the weight range they support, etc..
Blind Engine claim that they use roll shades, roman shades, horizontal blinds, vertical blinds, and roll type drapes. However, they don’t support cloth curtains, blinds with lock switches, pull cable blinds, blinds with a large connector (that you could simply take out anyway), and so they definitely do not use blinds.
It comes with two different gears that may use ordinary string cords, small ball chains, and big ball chains. Which are 1.6mm – 4.4 mm and 4.5mm – 6.6 mm on the bigger end. Blind Engine’s maximum capacity is 10ft by 10ft and will hold up to 15lbs of weight. However, those numbers are not necessarily fixed since they can be affected by factors like the type of fabric, etc. So bear this in mind if you are thinking of purchasing them for your rooms.
Biggest Pros:
The best features of the Blind Engine are:
- Mobile Control (could be controlled through your smartphone)
- Multiple Control (you can control numerous blinds concurrently )
- Location Recognition (they can be put to go up or down based on your own phone’s position )
- Voice Control (using Alexa, Google Assistant, Homepod, etc.)
- Emergency Auto-Stop (Automatic stop feature if the line gets stuck, or if it finds additional strange weight or pressure.
The best portion of the smart blinds so far as I was concerned was that the 3-minute easy installation. I strongly advise that you be certain that your blinds are all compatible before buying though, but otherwise, it is a wonderful product and is actually a really cost-effective alternative.
MySmartBlinds Automation Kit
These blinds operate on solar energy, so you’ll find nothing to plug in. The biggest disadvantage to this is the pain of setup in comparison to the Blind Engine. The other downside is their compatibility in my opinion. They are only compatible with two ″-3″ Horizontal Blinds. Additionally, MySmartBlinds are compatible with mini blinds, roller shades, cordless blinds, nor cellular or honeycomb style blinds or shades.
They have a great program that is compatible with both Apple or Android devices though and it worked well once I went through the hassle of installment.
You can also establish daily and weekly schedules to cause them to mechanically go down or up at certain times of your day. Also, you could even set this with Alexa, Google Assistant or even Apple Homekit so you can control and command them via audio.
If you’re interested in looking into the reviews and existing pricing you can see them at Amazon.
Purchasing New Smart Blinds
If the notion of installing something to produce your existing blinds smart scares the crap out of you personally, then you may like to consider just purchasing and installing new smart blinds or having someone install them for you. There are a number of companies out there that make smart blinds, but honestly, the only maker I would recommend is Lutron.
You can command them by using HomeKit Amazon Alexa along with Google Assistant. The trendy thing about Lutron is that they provide smart blinds. You can go right to their website and make customized designs for every one of your windows by position. You’re able to choose from the honeycomb and color roller styles for the smart shades also. Which kind of restricts your choices, so it is exactly what it is from this perspective.
Their Smart Bridge operates with Nest, Wink, Logitech Harmony, and Sonos. It connects and works cohesively.
If you wish to check them out, you can proceed directly through Lutron’s web site and see if it is a perfect fit for you.
A Complete DIY Guide to Making Your Dumb Blinds Smart
To convert your blinds, you should get some items that include Adhesive Tape, Blinds, Blind Motor, Power Adaptor, Blinds Tube 10 feet, Alexa Device along with an RF Device.
When you think of it, the cost of most of these products is lower compared to the smart blinds that are readily available.
You need to set the hardware up after which I will explain to you just how to set up the software to work for these blinds.
The Hardware Setup
The first step is to gauge the length of the window. The next step requires replacing the support bar for the purpose of installing the engine. Pick up a 1-1/4 inch EMT conduit out of your community hardware store.
If more lengthy, however, you can cut it to match the precise width of the blinds. You should also remember, before purchasing, to ensure the tubing is straight by rolling the tube on a lawn.
Remove until you get to the end, by unrolling the blinds. Don’t stop, and continue unrolling. Where you need to cut on it you can mark on the tube to the specific places.
Now you can insert the engine once the clipping is over. I used the 25mm Motor Kit and Kit Control as I wanted it to possess enough power.
You are able to cut on the motor so that it adequately fits inside the rod. You certainly can do it by cutting out the track of an exact angle together with the assistance of cutting pliers, and you may reach the pole. Use a block and then depress the spring and then hammer the matching within the pole.
Fitting the Motor
Initially, you can cut on the small guide lumps and repeat the same. In the same way, you want to cut the engine rubber’s finish in making it fit inside the tube into its alloy.
You can push the motor. It’s time to add the blinds. A double-sided rug tape (click to assess current price on Amazon) for attaching the exact color to the rod will probably be convenient for this goal.
Make sure to direct the tape positioning and keep wrap the tape, and line it up. For attaching the blind to the rod, roll it on connecting the rest of the portion of this blind.
Hurry here, when you’ve managed to cover most of the steps in a manner that is suitable and recheck. Remember, if things are not organized properly, the blinds won’t work. Set the engine mount on a side that is conveniently close to the electrical socket.
To hook up the blinds and begin a test run, if you see the blinds are not moving you should attempt pairing the remote with all the blinds, you will locate directions on the manual of this motor product.
Should you discover that the blinds aren’t moving in an ideal way, then you can alter the motor’s rotation direction.
Setting Up Your Blinds With the Window
You are ready to set the blinds to your windows up. You can find the guidelines to do this in the manual of this motor.
What’s more, additionally, it has the details on setting the upper and lower limit of the blinds. Your next step within the guide is to mount the curtain; you could make use of Velcro and a metal mount.
You could even use some hot glue to fasten the cord in a neat manner; when you can bang the dollar, this is also an option different from the electric guide rails where you are free to select the guide rails.
That is it! Your hardware motorizing and setup for the blinds is complete.
The Software Setup
Grab yourself the latest version of RM Pro. Probably, this is the best device that controls radiofrequency. It will be really beneficial for you.
You can prepare the device by following the instructions in it for connecting it to a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. The next step will involve downloading the program.
Download the app which is available for iOS and Android devices. Since we’ve already mentioned this in the prerequisites section, we’ll use an Android device the reason being simple, the Android box is far less costly than the Apple device.
Working With the App
You’re all set once the app download is complete, like in the setup of this RM Pro.
Initially make sure you’re loading the RM Pro program into the app.
Now, select ‘add a new remote’ and set it together with specifications, adding up, down, and stop buttons. You can now program each command by observing the instructions and clicking on the button.
Here comes Alexa
Download a plugin to set up the blinds with Alexa. To get better results, you can download a third-party app RM Plugin that can process your voice orders better.
Go to share and the section from the program. From that point, tap the option “Share to other mobiles in WLAN option” Now revisit the settings page of the RM Plugin app and select the “Force import Data from e-control.”
Do not forget to allow the Alexa bridge option; you will come across that from the menu. You ought to incorporate an Alexa apparatus and map the blinds’ close command from another alternative “Select an existing code”:
After you’re finished with the plugin setup, up next is incorporating the controls to Alexa. You can now select the devices that are found; you will discover the blinds’ control is currently shown there.
Test it by voicing orders, such as “Alexa start the colors” or “Turn the shades off” or whatever you would like. That’s it; you have now successfully transformed your older blinds to smart ones.
Conclusion
What do I recommend that you get? I believe that it all depends upon your own comfort and ease. But I’m personally a big fan of Blind Engine, and if you simply want something that works outside the box without a large amount of time, then their service appears to be best.
We trust it has gotten clearer for you after going through this guide. You’re now absolutely free to pick the option that is most effective based on your own comfort level, and naturally, when you’ve got time and patience, you can construct your own smart blinds.