Why is it so hard to buy electric roller blinds?

[jonwestuk]

Hi All,

I am having serious trouble buying electric roller blinds either online or from suppliers that visit our home. Our needs are fairly simple, electric roller blinds for 6 rooms - a total of 12 blinds. I have indicated to all of the suppliers that I like home automation and would consider paying a premium for it - however all of them seem not to want to talk about Somfy even though they do supply them and I have directly enquired about it. I think they assume it will be too costly. They seem not to really understand the electric systems that well, and have no literature or knowledge of different controllers, remotes etc.

This has led to one supplier deciding not to even quote for the job, even though we were clear on what material we wanted and had agreed the controllers - he had even measured up! When asked he would not even tell us why he would not quote (he did seem upset that we didn't want 1x3m manual blind instead of 3xelectric blinds, which is odd as 3 electric were definitely more expensive!).

All of this would be fine as I could order online, however the online providers have such limited fabric options.

Do any of you have good recommendations of online or home quote/shop suppliers that might be able to help me? Or do you have advice on what I am doing wrong with my approach?

Thanks,

Jon

 

[bernardgreen]

Are you looking for the type of roller where the motor is inside the roller. ?

Years ago I has sucess with automating a previously manually operated blind using a motor and wheel fitted at the bottom of the chain to move the chain. It was a Heath Robinson construction but it served the purpose. Maybe there is a ready made device that works in the same way. That would give you freedom to choose almost any blind that had a chain to open and close it.

If it was necessary to fit limit switches to automatically stop the movement when the blind was fully open or fully closes then the upper chain wheel would need to be smaller in diameter than the roller. This would make the chain move less than the blind enabling simple limit stops to be fitted on the chain to operae micro switches. The one I cobbled together only moved while the button was held pressed.

 

[jonwestuk]

I am looking for the electric movement to be in the roller as we have 3 windows in a row and dont want a chain in the middle. This company does a device similar to what you are suggesting just in case anyone else needs something similar:
http://www.teptron.com/move.html