Motorization

Motorized Shades in Florida: Battery or Hardwired, and What Happens in a Hurricane Outage

A motorized roller shade on its remote. Photo: Design Revelation of Florida.

How do motorized shades get their power?

Every motorized shade has a small motor hidden inside the roller tube or headrail. That motor gets its power one of two ways: a rechargeable battery pack tucked out of sight, or a low-voltage wire run to the window by an electrician. Design Revelation specifies Somfy motors for both versions, and your designer sizes each motor to the weight and width of the shade it has to lift, so a wide living room shade and a small bathroom shade each get the motor they need.

Neither option is better in every room. The right choice depends on whether your walls are open, how big the shades are, how you want to control them, and how much you care about the shades working during an outage. Here is how the two compare side by side.

Which should you choose for your home?

For most Florida homes that are already built and finished, battery motors are the practical choice. There is no drywall to cut and no electrician to schedule, and the shades still run when a summer storm knocks out the power. They are a good fit for condos in Palm Beach and Boca Raton, where opening walls can mean board approvals, and for homes in Marion and Citrus counties where the window treatments are being updated rather than the whole house.

Hardwired motors make the most sense when the walls are already open. If you are building in The Villages or remodeling a great room in Lake County, ask your builder or electrician to run low-voltage wire to the window heads before the drywall goes up. Hardwired is also the better match for very large or very heavy shades, and for homes tied into a whole-home system such as Control4, Savant, Crestron or SmartThings. Once installed, there is nothing to recharge, ever.

You do not have to choose one system for the whole house. Many homes end up with a mix: hardwired shades in a new addition and battery shades everywhere else, all on the same remote and app. Your designer will look at each window and recommend the power source that fits it, along with the fabric and style from our full range of custom shades. [CONFIRM: which shade types Design Revelation motorizes]

What happens to motorized shades in a hurricane power outage?

This is the question we hear most from Florida homeowners, and the answer depends on the motor. Battery motors run on their own charge, so you can still open and close them with the remote while the power is out. That matters more than it sounds: when the air conditioning is off for days, being able to open shades for daylight in the morning and close them against afternoon heat makes a dark, warm house more livable.

Hardwired motors stop where they are until power comes back. If your home has a whole-house generator or battery backup, ask the electrician to put the shade circuit on it so the shades keep running with everything else. A little preparation before storm season covers the rest.

Will my shades still work if the Wi-Fi goes down?

Yes. Remotes and wall switches talk directly to the motor, so local control keeps working with or without internet. You do not need Wi-Fi to own motorized shades at all. Plenty of homeowners use nothing but a remote and never miss the rest.

App control, schedules and voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant do need your home internet, because they reach the shades over your home network. If you want those features, your app, schedules and scenes are programmed for you at installation, so everything works on day one. When the Wi-Fi drops, app and voice control pause until it returns, but the remote keeps working.

Which setup works better for a seasonal home?

If you are away part of the year, schedules do the work for you. Shades can close during the hottest hours to keep heat and UV off floors, rugs and furniture, then open in the evening so the house looks lived in. Away mode and the phone app let you check or change everything from up north.

For seasonal homes, battery motors have one extra point in their favor: if the power fails while you are gone, a hardwired shade stays wherever it stopped, while a battery shade can still be opened or closed by a neighbor or house watcher with the remote. Pair them with solar roller shades on west-facing windows for the biggest difference in afternoon heat. Before you leave for the season, charge every shade so the motors start full. [CONFIRM: whether a solar charging panel is offered for battery shades]

What happens at the in-home consultation?

Your designer comes to your home with samples, measures every window precisely, and talks through how you live in each room. Bring up outages, the doors you use most, and whether you want app or voice control. You will get a clear, detailed written quote that lists battery or hardwired for each shade, and every product carries a 7-year warranty, with Somfy motors backed by a 5-year manufacturer warranty.

If you would also like motorized drapery in the same room, the same remote and app can run motorized drapes on a quiet track alongside your shades. When you are ready, schedule your free design consultation and we will plan the right power source for every window.

Frequently asked questions