Motorization Guide

Motorized vs. manual: the short answer

Three things decide this, and price is rarely the first of them.

• Reach. Tall stairwell windows, transoms and anything above a kitchen counter are awkward to operate by hand. Motorization is often the only practical answer.
• Number of shades. One shade in a bedroom is a manual shade. Twelve shades across an open-plan main floor become a chore that nobody performs daily, which is the point at which shading stops doing its job.
• Power access. A rechargeable motor needs a person willing to plug in a USB-C cable a couple of times a year, or a solar panel with usable light. A hardwired motor needs a low-voltage run planned before the drywall goes up.

If none of those apply — a single accessible window, operated occasionally — a well-chosen manual control is lighter, cheaper and has nothing to charge. Sun Glow's operating controls include a chain with the Safety Shield child-safety device, the Zero Gravity weight-balancing spring and the cordless NEO Chainless System, which is enough range that "manual" does not have to mean "hard to pull".

Stealth, hardwired and manual compared

Sun Glow offers two motorization platforms — Stealth and Somfy — alongside manual controls. This is how the three approaches differ in practice.

Which Stealth motor a project needs

Three motors cover most of the range, and in practice three questions choose between them: is there power at the window, how narrow is the narrowest opening, and how is the shade going to be operated day to day.

Full specifications — torque, speed settings, noise ratings and compatible shade types — are on the Stealth Motorization page. Two constraints from that table are worth carrying into a specification meeting, because they eliminate options before anything else does:

• Minimum width is a hard limit. Flex reaches down to 17 3/16 in., the Rechargeable to 21 15/16 in. and the Wand to 22 in. Survey the narrowest window early — one small bathroom or stairwell opening can decide the power platform for the entire project, because Flex is the only one that goes below 22 in. and Flex means a wire.
• Torque decides what a motor can lift — and there is no single maximum width. Width, drop, fabric weight, tube size and hardware all feed the same calculation, so the same motor that comfortably runs a wide sheer will refuse a blackout shade of identical width. This is why Sun Glow sizes each shade against its motor at order entry instead of publishing one number. On anything oversized, send your dealer the width, drop and fabric before the design is fixed — it is a quick check, and it is the one that catches a shade the motor cannot lift.

What Stealth motors fit

Roller, Interlude, Illusion, Vision, Roman, Aria, Gemini, Fixed and Dual Square Fascia shades, plus the Multi-band versions of each. Atlas 2.0 takes the Flex and Rechargeable motors but not the Wand.

Cellular shades use their own Stealth motors rather than the three above, and they are worth knowing about because their minimum widths work differently:

Note the pattern: moving the battery outside the tube is what buys the narrow openings. On a cellular project with small windows, specify the external battery version rather than assuming the shade cannot be motorized.

Planning power: battery, solar or DC

Power is not really a product choice — it is a building question answered before the shades are ordered. Three paths, and what each one asks of the project:

• Battery. Asks for a person who will plug in a USB-C cable roughly twice a year (a full charge lasts up to six months). Nothing else: no electrician, no wall penetration, no coordination. This is why it is the default in finished homes, condominiums and rentals.
• Solar. Removes even the cable, but budget it per window rather than per project: one panel powers one motor, so twelve motorized shades means twelve panels. The Stealth panel (order code SSPC, 6.4 V / 4.2 W) has a 12 in. USB-C cord, which means it mounts on the glazing immediately beside the motor — there is no routing it somewhere less visible. And it needs a window that genuinely receives direct sun for part of the day, which makes it a per-window judgement rather than a project-wide default.
• DC. Asks for a low-voltage run to each motorized opening, committed at framing. In exchange it removes charging from the building's life entirely — the reason it dominates new construction and commercial work.

Choosing a control platform

Both platforms end up in the same place — a remote, an app, a voice assistant, scenes on a schedule. The choice is about which ecosystem the project is joining, not which feature list is longer.

Remote models, channel counts and accessories are listed on the Stealth and Somfy pages.

New construction vs. retrofit: what to specify

On new construction, the decision that costs money later is not the motor — it is the absence of a wire. Roughing in low-voltage to openings that are likely to be motorized is inexpensive at framing and expensive afterwards.

What to put on the electrical drawings

• Panel supply. The DC power distribution panel takes 85–125 V AC through an IEC-C14 inlet and delivers low-voltage DC to the shades, rated 360 W — 24 A across the panel, 1.33 A per channel. Give it a location with a standard receptacle and access for service.
• Cable gauge by run length. Runs up to 15 m accept 24 AWG; longer runs step up progressively, reaching 16 AWG at 100–160 m. Past roughly 165 m the panel does not support the run, so a long horizontal distribution — a commercial floorplate, a detached wing — needs a second panel rather than heavier wire.
• Channel count, not motor count. Smaller motors take one channel each; larger 35–45 mm motors are wired in parallel across two channels, which halves what a panel covers. Confirm motor size before assuming 18 openings per panel.
• Who installs it. Sun Glow specifies installation and setup by a suitably qualified installer, and the mains terminal block must not be rewired.

The specification checklist

Bring this to a dealer consultation, or attach it to the purchase order. It is the shortest route to a quote that does not need revising.

1. Opening list — room, quantity, width and height, inside or outside mount.
2. Shade type per opening — Roller, Interlude, Illusions, Roman, Vision, Cellular.
3. Fabric and opacity — see the fabric collection; blackout fabrics and wide shades affect motor selection.
4. Motorized or manual, per opening — including the openings you are leaving manual, so nothing is assumed.
5. Motor model and power — Rechargeable / Flex / Wand; battery, solar or DC.
6. Control scheme — how many remotes, which shades group together, whether a Stealth Bridge or TaHoma hub is in scope.
7. Automation targets — Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT, TaHoma scenes, or none.
8. Hardware — cassette, fascia or open roll, and finish or fabric wrap.
9. Site conditions — reveal depth, obstructions, ceiling or wall mount, and where power lands.
10. Remotes and chargers as their own line items — every motorized shade needs a remote specified with it, and every battery motor needs a charger. One USB-C charger services several motors; a solar panel serves exactly one. Left off the order, they are the thing that delays a handover.

When manual controls are the better call

Motorizing every opening is not automatically the better specification. Manual controls remain the right answer for accessible windows, secondary rooms, and projects where the budget is better spent on fabric than on motors.

• Chain with Safety Shield — a chain guard that can be installed on any new or existing chain-operated roller shade, and meets industry child-safety standards. Specify it wherever children may be present.
• Zero Gravity — weight-balancing technology that counterbalances the fabric so oversized shades and dense blackout fabrics operate smoothly by hand.
• NEO Chainless System — removes cords and chains entirely: pull down by hand, then a light tug retracts the shade.

A common and defensible split on a whole-home project: motorize the tall, the high and the many; leave bedrooms and secondary windows on Zero Gravity or NEO.

Sun Glow Window Covering Products of Canada Ltd. — Canada's precision window shade manufacturer. Specifications on this page are drawn from Sun Glow product documentation and are subject to change; confirm current specifications with your dealer at order time.