PowerShades’s new smart shades can be controlled and powered using a single cable
One of the biggest headaches of installing smart window shades is figuring out how to power the motors. Relying on AC power requires an ugly wall wart and hiding the resulting wires, but relying on battery power is just not environmentally friendly. Now there’s an alternative.
Missouri-based PowerShades says its latest smart shades come with a motor that supports Power over ethernet (PoE), a technology that allows for the transmission of both power and data over a single low-voltage ethernet cable.
PoE support is common in such networked devices such as security cameras, network switches, VoIP phones, and wireless access points, but this is the first time we’ve heard of a PoE-enabled smart shade, and it’s a clever alternative to snaking bulky Romex electrical wiring through your walls.