If you have Hunter Douglas window coverings with the PowerView Hub motorized controls, you are starting to see the evolution of Smart Home communication. Today, we are looking at the Low Battery notification from the PowerView hub.

Please watch the attached video. What you will notice is that when the batteries get low powered, the system, which is internet based, sends you an email informing you that one or more of your window coverings has a low battery. At this point, you would go to your ios or android app and open the shade control page. When you do, you will see a typical battery symbol in red, indicating a low battery on the individual shade that is noted. In the video you will notice that two of the shades in this particular Reno home have the notice of low battery. The design of the notice is to give you plenty of time to get new batteries before the shades are inoperable. A note on batteries. Hunter Douglas PowerView strongly suggests that you use Energizer batteries. The reason for this is something that was described to me as “crush resistant”. The biggest cause of failure in battery packs on motorized window coverings is corrosion. The cause of the corrosion is typically a crushing of the battery, usually from a drop of a battery on the floor. Over time, a battery that has been dropped can start to corrode. When this happens, the acids in that battery will cause a chain reaction that will eat up the contacts in the battery wand. The battery wand is what Hunter Douglas PowerView uses to hold the 8-12 AA batteries in place on the shade or blind. Hunter Douglas has done tests to determine which battery is best as avoiding being crushed. They suggest the Energizer brand. Personally, I’ve never had any issues with other brands. I use the Kirkland brand from Costco, just based on price. When you are buying 12, 24, 36, 48 or more batteries at a time, you might think about the price a bit.

Low Battery Notification email