I Spent $6,000 on Smart Shades for Every Window – Worth It?
6 Months Later, is going all-in on smart blinds for every window actually worth it?
By Josh Teder
Why I Automated Every Window
It’s been six months since I spent about six grand outfitting my new home with smart shades, or in my case blinds, specifically the Serena wood blinds from Lutron. So was it worth it, or a waste of money? Do I wish I had done some windows but not others? Should you just do smart shades for all of your windows? And are there cheaper options I should have considered? I’ll answer all of those questions and more.
First, why did I decide to put smart shades on every window? This may sound a bit weird, I know, but throughout my life I have genuinely never enjoyed having to open and close blinds or shades every day. So when I moved into a bigger space with 18 windows, I knew I would want to automate most of them. At the time, it just seemed easier to order all the blinds at once and be done with it, which is what I did. That way, they all work exactly the same and they all match.
I did get a media discount from Lutron, which saved me about $3,500. As part of that discount, I was required to install all 18 blinds myself, which was way more doable than I thought it would be. With these blinds, I got the install down to about 15 minutes per blind, and I knocked out the whole job in a few hours. Yes, I would do it again. It was pretty straightforward. The hardest part was actually getting all of them connected to my Lutron Bridge. Some of them just didn’t want to connect, but after some trial and error and a few restarts, I did get all of them connected.
What 6 Months Later Actually Looks Like
Sunlight, Floors, and Everyday Convenience
Now, six months later, yes, I am glad that I automated most of them. One of the main reasons is that these blinds can automatically prevent direct sunlight from entering your space. They rotate the angle of the blind depending on the position of the sun. That keeps my houseplant leaves from burning, helps prevent my LVP floors from warping (which actually happened when we first moved in and didn’t have any blinds up), and it generally prevents harsh glare from entering spaces.
“Going all in on every window has paid off in ways that I didn’t expect.”
Group Control and a Security Bonus
The other great thing about having all of your blinds be smart is that you can control them in groups, whether that’s with a remote, the app, a schedule, or just your voice. Six months later, that still feels very cool, but it’s also useful. Even if you’re not home, it can make it look like you are, which is a nice security plus. You can also have them automatically close at sunset, so you maximize the amount of natural light coming into your space.
Which Windows Didn’t Need to Be Smart
But six months later, did every window need to be smart? No. I have a bathroom downstairs with a window right next to the toilet, and those blinds are basically always closed. In our main bedroom, I originally had these set with Natural Light Optimization enabled, where they change their angle on their own. But since this is the main bedroom, sometimes you want to sleep in or you’re doing other things, and having blinds randomly open fully in the afternoon just isn’t always ideal. So those blinds are either usually closed, or I just manually set their angle and tilt.
Given that not every blind needed to be smart, looking back six months, did I waste my money? Well, maybe a bit. Specifically with that guest bathroom blind, I could have gotten a dumb blind that still matched the others from Lutron. How much would I have saved? Somewhere around $250 to $400, depending on the blind style. Could I have also saved money by going with a non-Lutron shade or blind? Yes. But first, let me walk through why I actually spent more going with the Lutron ones, and then I’ll get into some other options worth considering.
Why I Chose Lutron Over Cheaper Options
Reliability
The first reason I wanted Lutron is their reliability. Lutron, at least here in the US, has a pretty unique technology called Clear Connect RF, a patented, ultra-reliable frequency unique to their devices that lets them bypass interference from Wi-Fi traffic and other sources, ensuring control of their products works flawlessly. Six months later, that has definitely been true. All of the automations you create in their app actually live locally in the hub, so as long as you have power, your shades or blinds will open and close.
Battery Design
Another reason I went with Lutron is the battery design. Each of my blinds takes four D-cell batteries at my window sizes (Lutron’s blinds use anywhere from 4 to 12 batteries depending on the size of the blind). While the upfront cost of getting all those batteries wasn’t nothing, the motors are so efficient that, in my experience with my old blinds, the batteries last about three to four years, in line with Lutron’s own 3 to 5 year estimate. For 18 windows, that is far simpler than trying to bring power to every blind, which really only makes sense if you can get someone to wire your house for it before drywall or during a full retrofit, which I wasn’t able to do.
The other reason I went with the D-cell battery design is that I really dislike blinds from some other manufacturers that have an integrated, non-removable rechargeable battery you need to recharge with a USB-C cord every six months or so. Sure, that might work if you have one or two shades, but not 18. I want my blinds to actually have removable batteries.
Wood Blinds and Compatibility
The other reason I went with Lutron is that I specifically wanted wood blinds, so they’d blend in with my neighborhood and match the aesthetic of the home I bought. Lutron still remains one of the only smart shade makers that actually makes a version with real wood blinds. They also work with most major smart home brands, and can even be pulled into Home Assistant through Lutron’s official integration for the Caséta hub. They’re not Matter compatible, though, at least at the time of recording, which is a bit of a downside.
Features and Natural Light Optimization
And then, lastly, they have great features. While the app isn’t the prettiest to look at, it is really easy to schedule your blinds to open at a specific time or close at sunset, as well as enable what Lutron calls Natural Light Optimization. This technology automatically adjusts the position of my blinds throughout the day based on the direction your window faces, which you specify when you first set up each blind. From there, it takes into account the sun’s position based on the time of day, as well as the time of year, to accurately adjust the angle of every blind.
Direct sunlight coming through the window is either directed upward by the blinds or completely shut out by closing them fully. You can also choose the default open and close angle per blind in its settings. For my bedroom, for instance, I can set it so the blinds are never fully open but can still tilt to allow natural light into the space.
Other Brands Worth Considering
So that’s the Lutron Serena smart wood blinds that I got, and in a bit, I’ll tell you how you can get them for cheaper than I did. But besides Lutron, what are some other brands worth looking at if you want to stay in the more premium space?
Hunter Douglas is a brand I hear come up a lot for nice quality motorized shades. TWOPAGES Curtains is another one, a brand I’m familiar with that makes custom-sized curtains that won’t break the bank, and I’ve had really good experience with the ones I bought for my studio space. I’d probably give their solution a look too.
Then I’d look at Eve, SwitchBot, and SmartWings. All of those options cost less than the Hunter Douglas and Lutron options. Eve’s MotionBlinds use a similar approach to Lutron, calculating blind position from the sun’s position based on your location and window orientation rather than an actual light sensor, while SwitchBot’s Blind Tilt is the one product here with a real onboard light sensor built in, though it’s a clip-on motor for blinds you already own rather than a full replacement blind. I can’t say how reliable any of them are compared to Lutron’s solution, though, which brings me to my recommendations on smart shades in general and how to get the blinds I got for cheaper.
If you want to price compare all of the blinds from the different companies mentioned here, I’ve left links in the product roundup on the blog.
The New Caséta Wood Blinds Are Cheaper
Maybe about a month after I got my smart blinds, Lutron launched a new line of wood blinds called the Caséta Smart Wood Blinds. These start at a flat price of $429 for any size up to 48 inches wide and 80 inches high, about $250 less per blind than the Serena wood blinds. And here’s the kicker: they have the exact same technology as the blinds I got, even the same color. They’re basically the exact same blind. The Serena line just has more high-quality fabric options for shades, more premium options, and support for larger windows, but from a technical standpoint, they have the exact same features. I really wish Lutron had given me a heads-up on that.
So, in general, if I had to do it all over again and I didn’t have the media discount, I’d do all the blinds I did, except for the downstairs bathroom, and I’d choose the new Caséta blinds. I would have spent right around the same amount I already spent on these blinds. At $429 per blind, considering dumb wood blinds in the US aren’t that much less expensive (maybe $300 per blind), when you factor in the automation and ease of use you get with the Lutron blinds, I actually think going with automated smart wood blinds is a no-brainer if you can swing it.
Final Verdict: Is It Worth It?
So has all of this been worth it? Yes, I do think smart blinds, even the more expensive ones I got, have been worth it.
“I actually think going with something like automated smart wood blinds is a no-brainer if you can swing it.”
I’d recommend getting them to anyone who’s either installing new window shades or blinds in a new home, or who wants to retrofit a room or two, or their entire home.
