SMART HOME BUTLER · LIVING ROOM
Curtains have three conflicting jobs at once
Let daylight in, block the afternoon sun, and give you privacy after dark. Across a day, each of those takes its turn at being the most important.
Curtains are not open or shut, they are a position
Most curtains have two states: opened in the morning, closed before bed. For the dozen hours in between nothing moves, while outside the sun keeps travelling.
The classic problem is the low afternoon sun. Between two and five it comes in from the side, and those hours can run two or three degrees warmer than the rest of the day while the leather sofa and the wooden floor slowly bleach. You are usually out at the time, and all you notice on returning is that the room feels close.
The other is privacy. After dark, with lights on inside and nothing outside, the room is completely visible from the street. Most people only think of it when they go to draw the curtains, which is normally at bedtime.
How often the curtains move in a day
- 30 min after sunrise
Open
Not a fixed seven o'clock, but tied to sunrise. Earlier in summer, later in winter, so the light arrives at a consistent point in the day.
- Around 14:00
Down to 30%
The sun starts coming in from the side. Thirty per cent blocks the direct beam while keeping enough diffuse light that the room does not suddenly go dark.
- 17:00
Back open
The angle has passed and direct sun no longer enters, so the curtains reopen and the evening daylight is kept.
- At sunset
Fully closed
This step is about darkness rather than the clock. Once the sky dims and lights come on inside, privacy becomes the priority.
Four things it takes care of
Cooler afternoons
Blocking the direct beam takes two or three degrees off a summer afternoon, and the air conditioning has less to fight.
Furniture keeps its colour
Ultraviolet is what cracks leather and bleaches wooden floors. That damage accumulates quietly and is usually noticed too late.
Automatic privacy
Closed at dusk without waiting for someone to remember. The window when the room is visible from outside simply disappears.
More daylight, not less
Fully open whenever it should be. Compared with keeping them drawn all day out of caution, this actually gets you more natural light.
Different aspects, different approaches
| Your living room faces | What matters | Suggested setup |
|---|---|---|
| West | The classic low afternoon sun | 30% from 14:00 to 17:30 — this is the important stretch |
| East | Direct morning sun | 40% from 07:00 to 10:00, fully open in the afternoon |
| South | Welcome in winter, too strong in summer | 50% at midday in summer, nothing in winter so the sun can warm the room |
| North | Almost no direct sun | Only the privacy step is needed; leave open all day |
| On a street or facing another block | Privacy outranks daylight | Hold at 60% during the day and close half an hour earlier at dusk |
What you need to have
| What it does | Category in the system | Essential? |
|---|---|---|
| Powered curtains | cover | Yes |
| Know sunrise and sunset | sun, built in | Ships with the hub |
| Measure brightness | sensor illuminance | Nice to have |
| Measure indoor temperature | sensor | Nice to have |
How the whole thing works
Use the ready-made blueprint
The hub ships with 22 tested automation blueprints — think of one as a fill-in-the-blanks form. This uses light_sync_cover_and_fan, which maps changes in brightness onto a curtain position.
| Field | What it means | Suggested |
|---|---|---|
| Which curtain | The living room curtains | — |
| When to open | Tied to sunrise, not the clock | 30 min after sunrise |
| Afternoon sun window | The hours your room actually catches it | 14:00 to 17:30 |
| Position during it | Block direct, keep diffuse | 30% |
| When to close | Tied to sunset or brightness | At sunset |
Just say the word
You do not have to fill in any of those hours and positions by hand. The WOOWTECH hub ships with HA-MCP, which lets AI connect straight into your system, build the rules, and then run each one to confirm the curtain really reached the position before reporting back.
Prompts you can copy straight across
Every block below can be copied whole with the button on the right. Pick the one closest to what you want — you do not need all five.
Make the powered curtains in my living room automatic. Open them once it is properly light in the morning, take them to thirty per cent through the low afternoon sun so the direct beam is blocked, and close them fully after dark for privacy. Find the curtains and sensors yourself, and if you cannot find one, skip it rather than guessing.
Set up automatic control for the living room curtains in three stages: fully open 30 minutes after sunrise, hold at 30% from 14:00 to 17:30, and close fully at sunset. Do not close them completely during the middle stage — the thirty per cent is there to keep the diffuse light so the room is not dark all afternoon. If the curtain only opens and closes fully, first make percentages possible by estimating position from travel time. If there is an illuminance sensor, base the evening step on outdoor brightness rather than the clock. Leave the curtains open when the indoor temperature is below 22 degrees, so winter sun can help warm the room. Add a manual override too: after I move the curtains myself, pause automation for two hours. When it is built, test it yourself, confirm it really works, and then tell me which devices you used.
Our living room is on a main road with another block directly opposite, so privacy matters more to us than daylight. Do not open fully during the day — sixty per cent is as far as I want it. Keep the thirty per cent for the afternoon sun, but run that stretch from 13:30 to 18:00, because we catch it for longer. In the evening do not wait for sunset; close fully half an hour earlier. Push the morning opening back to an hour after sunrise as well, since opening too early puts the room on display.
A few changes to the living room curtain rules. The afternoon is still too bright, so take that stretch from 30% down to 20%. The morning opening is too early and the motor wakes people, so move it to an hour after sunrise. Extend the manual override pause from two hours to four. Leave everything else alone, and when you are done tell me the time and position for each of the three rules.
We had a power cut yesterday, and ever since the power came back the living room curtains no longer sit where they say they do. The panel reads 30% open, but standing in the room it is plainly not thirty per cent. Please recalibrate them so the percentage matches what I can see. How you do that is up to you — running them to one end and back and using that pass as the reference is fine. If the position is worked out from travel time, measure those seconds again while you are in there. Park them fully open when you are finished, and I will walk over and check for myself.
Common questions
The position is not quite accurate
Is the motor noisy?
Will it go to 30% on an overcast day too?
Should it block the winter sun as well?
Should all our windows move together?
Do I have to rebuild it to change the position?
After one summer
Coming home in the afternoon no longer means walking into a hot, close room, and the leather on the sofa has not faded the way it used to.
And it has been a long time since you last reached for that cord.