4 min read

Blinds, a commodity everyone needs in their home. Over the years, different types of blinds have existed in the market. Plantation blinds, manual blinds, roll down, etc. With smart home technology emerging and becoming more accessible, the market for blinds is tranforming!

 

Use cases with smart blinds

Before we get into the various kinds of smart blinds, let me explain why we need them in the first place. One big reason, as you’ve probably thought of already, is the sun! In countries throughout Scandinavia, summers are a challenge, especially for families with kids and older folk. When sleep cycles and schedules are crucial, what can better engulf your bedroom in perfect darkness than a great set of blinds? 

Next, one can measure brightness in a room by using light sensors, and this helps regulate the amount of light falling through the windows. Again, summer is a good example as the sun’s brightness varies throughout the season. 

They help pre-cool your home on a hot day. You can close the blinds several hours before heading home from work. This way, you’ll instantly set foot into a cool and soothing atmosphere. Works wonders on your family’s mood, try it! 

Let’s go through some varieties of blinds that you can control with the Animus Heart smart home controller. Since Animus Heart supports multiple protocols, you are not limited to use only one kind of smart blinds. Great right!?

 

 

IKEA blinds (FYRTUR & KADRILJ)

The popular furniture provider from Sweden, IKEA, is continually surprising with more smart products in their TRÅDFRI series. Blinds are not an exclusion, and there are two models to choose from, FYRTUR and KADRILJ. To add the IKEA blinds to Animus Heart you need the IKEA bridge and connect the blinds to the bridge first according to the IKEA manual. Thereafter you scan for the bridge on the Animus Home app and the blinds are automatically followed, together with other IKEA devices that you might have in the bridge. 

Having the IKEA blinds in Animus Heart makes it possible to build advanced automations with your blinds, that you otherwise would not be able to. For example, you could make an automation that opens your blinds gradually in the morning. This will give your eyes a kind adaptation to the brightness outside and you wake up happier!

 

Z-Wave Roller Shutters

Z-Wave roller shutters are not as plug-and-play as the IKEA blinds, but can be a good alternative to your existing motorized blinds. Connect a Z-Wave roller shutter to any motorized blind and add it to the Animus Home app. Animus Heart takes care of the communication with the roller shutter and you can easily control the shutter from the app or build clever automations.

Z-Wave roller shutters can for example be connected to simple tubular motors to make them Z-Wave smart. Installing tubular motors to traditional blinds is not very difficult. However, it’s important that you have fitting parts. See this instruction video made by our friend Erik at M.nu.

 

433MHz blinds

There are different varieties of 433MHz blinds as well. Some are fully assembled when bought and use a proprietary protocol, like the Somfy RTS. Others are tubular motors with built in 433MHz support, like the BOFU tubemotor blinds that soon can be added into Animus Heart. Compared to Z-Wave roller shutters and the IKEA blinds, these 433MHz blinds do not support two-way communication, meaning you can set changes and use it like the others, but the blind won’t report back of it’s status. Making it less reliable in some cases but still very valuable since they often can be found cheaper.

 

Did You Know?
The Romans got pretty tired of all the dust and debris blowing into their homes, their ingenious solution was to hang damp pieces of cloth over their windows and doorways, thus, the first Roman Blinds were born! (Also the first AC system maybe)

 

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