MOTORISATION
Somfy Motorised Blinds in South Africa: What It Is Actually Like to Live With
Galaxy Blinds · 21 September 2026 · 9 min read
Motorising a blind changes one thing above all others: the blind gets used. A manual blind on a four metre span ends up wherever it was left in March, because nobody wants to crank it twice a day. A Somfy motor turns that into a button, an app or a schedule, and suddenly the room gets managed properly instead of being left to the sun.
Key takeaways
- The real benefit of motorisation is not laziness, it is that motorised blinds actually get adjusted while manual ones do not.
- The decision that costs money later is power. A 220V motor needs a point near the blind, and running it after the wall is tiled means chasing plaster.
- Battery motors remove the wiring problem entirely, which is why they suit renovations and finished rooms.
- Somfy runs an app platform called TaHoma that handles scheduling and scenes, and the motors we fit support Apple HomeKit, Google Home and Alexa.
- One or two blinds you open seasonally do not need a motor. Three or more, drops over three metres, or anything you need shut in a hurry, do.
What does motorising a blind actually change day to day?
It changes how often the blind moves. That sounds trivial and it is the entire point. A manual blind gets set once and forgotten, so the room is either too bright all morning or too dark all afternoon, and the blind you paid for is doing about a third of its job.
The second change is the blinds you could never reach. Stairwell windows, double volume lounges, anything above a fixed piece of furniture. Those get fitted manual, then never touched again, which means the sun does whatever it likes to the floor underneath. A motor is the only sensible answer on a high window.
The third is speed, and it matters more outdoors than in. When a Highveld storm arrives with ninety seconds of warning, nobody runs outside with a crank handle. A remote or a phone closes the whole patio before the first hail lands. We cover that in more detail in our guide to outdoor blinds in South Africa.
Do you need Somfy specifically, or will any motor do?
Any motor will lift a blind. What you are buying with an established motor brand is the part that matters in year four: parts availability, a warranty that means something, and an app that is still being updated. A motor is not like a fabric, where the worst case is that you dislike it. A motor is a mechanism inside your wall that either still works in five years or does not.
Somfy is a global motorisation manufacturer whose range covers interior blinds and curtains, roller shutters, pergolas, awnings and external screens, and it extends to lighting and security. That breadth is the practical argument for it: if you motorise the lounge blinds this year and enclose the patio next year, the same app and the same remote run both. Mixing two brands across one house is how people end up with three remotes on the coffee table.
Galaxy Blinds fits Somfy as a certified Somfy expert, alongside Louvolite One Touch, with a five year warranty and support for Apple HomeKit, Google Home and Alexa. Full options sit on our motorised blinds page.
Wired or battery: which motor suits your wall?
Choose a 220V motor when the wall is still open, and a battery motor when it is not. That is nearly the whole decision, and it is dictated by building stage rather than by budget or preference.
A 220V motor is the one to specify during a build or a renovation, because a point can be run to each blind position while the walls are still bare. It never needs charging and it disappears completely into the structure. The catch is that it has to be planned before the plaster and the tiling go on. Deciding you want motorised blinds after the room is finished turns a simple job into chasing channels through a finished wall.
A battery motor is the answer for a finished room. No cable, no electrician, no chasing. It gets charged periodically instead, which is a small ongoing task in exchange for a large once-off saving in disruption. For a single bedroom blind in a house you are not otherwise touching, it is almost always the right call.
| Your situation | What we would fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Building or renovating, walls open | 220V Somfy motor | Power can be run now at almost no cost. Never needs charging |
| Finished room, tiled or plastered | Battery motor | No cable, no electrician, no chasing a finished wall |
| One or two blinds, opened seasonally | Crank handle or chain | A motor here is money spent on a problem you do not have |
| Three or more blinds on one elevation | Motorised, grouped | One command moves the set. Manually, nobody does all three |
| High or unreachable window | Motorised | The alternative is a blind that never moves again |
| Patio, exposed to weather | Motorised, every time | You close it before a storm, not during one |
What does the app do that a remote does not?
A remote opens and closes. An app schedules, groups and automates, which is where motorisation stops being a gadget and starts being useful. Somfy’s platform is called TaHoma, and the features people actually use are the dull ones: close the west blinds at four, open the bedroom at seven, drop everything when we leave.
Scheduling is the feature that pays for itself. A blind that closes automatically on the hot side of the house every afternoon is doing heat management without anyone remembering to do it, and the west facing rooms stop being unusable at five o’clock. That is the same job an interior blind does manually, done reliably.
Grouping is the second one. Six blinds across an open plan wall on one command, rather than six separate decisions nobody makes.
Does it work with Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomeKit?
Yes. The motors we fit support Apple HomeKit, Google Home and Alexa, so the blinds join whatever ecosystem the house already runs rather than forcing a new one. In practice most people use voice for one or two commands and the schedule for everything else, because telling a speaker to close six blinds individually is slower than letting them close themselves.
Worth saying plainly: voice control is the feature people ask about and the feature they use least. Buy motorisation for the scheduling and the reach. Treat voice as a bonus.
When is motorisation not worth it?
On one or two ordinary windows you adjust seasonally, motorisation is money spent on a problem you do not have. A chain on a normal bedroom window works fine, costs less and never needs charging or updating. We say this on quotes regularly and it costs us the upsell, which is rather the point.
It is also not worth doing badly. A motorised blind on a wall with no power point, fitted with a trailing cable to the nearest plug, looks worse than a chain and will annoy you every day. Either plan the power properly, choose a battery motor, or leave it manual.
What has to be decided before the walls close?
Power position, blind position and whether the head rail is recessed. All three are cheap to get right during a build and expensive to fix afterwards. If you are working with an architect or a builder, bring your blinds supplier in at the framing stage rather than at the snagging stage, which is something we ask for on every new build we are involved in.
The size limits matter here too. A single roller blind reaches 4000mm wide and 5000mm long, and outdoor blinds reach 5800mm wide. A wide opening becomes two blinds with a centre post, and where that post lands is a design decision, not something to discover on installation day. The roller blind range and the outdoor range carry the full specifications.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
Can you add a Somfy motor to blinds you already have?
Sometimes, and it depends on the blind rather than the motor. The tube, the brackets and the weight of the finished blind all have to suit the motor, and many older blinds were not built for one. It is worth asking, but do not assume it, and be wary of anyone who quotes to retrofit without seeing the blind.
Do motorised blinds still work when the power is off?
A battery motor does, because it is not on the mains at all. A 220V motor does not move while the power is out, though it holds its position, so a closed blind stays closed. If uninterrupted operation matters in your house, say so at quote stage and we will specify accordingly.
Are motorised blinds noisy?
Modern motors are quiet enough that the sound is not what you notice, and in a bedroom the travel is over in a few seconds. If silence at 6am is a specific concern, tell us and we will let you hear one before you commit, which is more useful than any adjective in a blog post.
Is Galaxy Blinds a certified Somfy installer?
Yes. We fit Somfy as certified Somfy experts from our Germiston workshop, across interior blinds, curtains and outdoor shading, and we have been installing custom window furnishings in South Africa since 1991. Somfy also publishes a point of sale finder if you want to check an installer independently.
What happens if the motor fails?
The motors we fit carry a five year warranty. Beyond the warranty question, the practical point is who comes back: our installations are done by our own teams rather than subcontractors, so the company that fitted it is the company that returns to it.
THE GALAXY STANDARD
Plan it before the plaster
The cheapest time to motorise a blind is before the wall is finished, and the second cheapest is with a battery motor after it is. The expensive option is deciding you want it once everything is tiled. If there is a build or a renovation in your near future, that is the conversation to have now rather than at the end.
Request a free measure and quote, or send us a photo of the room and tell us what stage the building is at. We will tell you whether to run the power or go battery before anyone spends anything.