Hi, need a recommendation on motorized shades there are lots out there and I am looking for a good value for my buck. I have multipul windows that I want to control averaging 5ft W by 6 to 8 ft L.
Thank you
Region you’re in (US or EU)? You’re talking roller shades, right?
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Yes, solar shades specifically. US.
While I love the concept of motorized shades, the cost has put me off. Far better to simply observe the forecast, and put the shades down or up depending on conditions and objectives for the time that no one will be around to raise or lower them.
You can get a good cordless top-down bottom-up shade for an average bedroom window for $70 online.
When the same thing can be had with smarthome connectivity and motorization for $125, maybe I’ll replace some of my older shades with them. At that point I’d love to do “follow the sun” routines or something to maximize heating during winter and cooling during summer. But if I go to The Shade Store, I see that motorized begins at $350… and you cannot get top-down bottom-up motorized. Were I rich, perhaps I’d splurge.
Then again, rich folks likely would not be conscious of energy usage at that level.
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The problem is there is no one “best” device. It depends greatly on your taste, budget and application. When you say value for your buck do you mean cheaper or just a good value. In general I would say blinds are one of the more expensive things to automate at the moment. There’s no budget brand. I suggest you read through some of the reviews of ST compatible blinds here on the forum and then you can determine what’s best for you. Or you can post there with specific questions about specific devices.
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Thanks you My budget is $250 to $350 for custom shades. I was reading about different brands, Bali with Smofy motor was one that I looked at. Zebra I found very expensive for custom.
In the US, the three most popular options appear to be Lutron Serena, One of the off the shelf Somfy options sold at Home Depot, and Zebra blinds. I can’t speak to the pricing on any of them, but most people seem to be happy with any of the three of those.
@ZebraBlinds has been quite active in this community over the years, and may have more they want to add. 
@JDRoberts Thanks!
You can find more info about the shade here: 2018 - Current: Custom Graber Virtual Cord Z-wave+ Shades & Bali Autoview Z-wave+ Shades
But general summary: They pair directly to SmartThings (no additional hub needed), they send updates back based on its current position. Allows Alexa and Google Home control. Will go to any position between 0 - 100%.
The standard somfy solutions will need a ZRTSI bridge and will only do open/close/preset position. Can’t comment on the Lutron’s other than they tend to be quite pricey.
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The Lutron solution will also require a separate bridge device. They usually go on sale twice a year at about 25% off, I know they are often on sale in December, but, yes, definitely pricey.
My old house had Lutron Serena and I had the hub which did all the integration. If I used Alexa, it was ifttt. Battery life was excellent, but some of my windows were in really difficult places. Had 14 blinds total and always worked perfectly. Very pricey- about $5800 for my setup, including wall controls. I got it back in the sale of the house, and it was worth it for the automation since the sun was in direct path of some of the windows
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Has anyone integrated The Shade Store’s proprietary system? They claim to have SmartThings integration (hub required, $150USD) coming in “Fall/Winter 2018”, but they already have IFTTT and Alexa integration, so I have to imagine it’s not that hard to get working even without “official” support?
So you are saying that only Zebra blinds out of the 3 options dont require a Hub to connect to smartthings or google home?
Lutron will require their smart bridge I believe: https://www.casetawireless.com/Pages/Products.aspx
The off the shelf somfy motors will need a ZRTSI Bridge (Z-wave to RTS Bridge). It’s limited to open, close and a preset position as well and won’t respond back to the hub. So it’s a guessing game knowing where the shade or blind is if you operate it with a remote.
The shades we sell are made by Graber, they use somfy motors but come with z-wave integrated into them (so no hub needed). The motors are only available with Graber products as well as some Bali products. The key differentiating factor is that we seem to be the only company that really understands how the motors etc work and actively address bugs etc (including a firmware update) which you can see from the following thread: 2018 - Current: Custom Graber Virtual Cord Z-wave+ Shades & Bali Autoview Z-wave+ Shades
Also if you are pricing things out, it’s usually a great time right now since everyone has offers going on for black friday. We’ve for example opened up black friday pricing to the ST community for most of the month; more details in the thread above.
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