Is it too late if my drywall is already up?

For a clean concealed run, mostly yes — fishing a cable to a window head in a finished wall is invasive and often not worth it. That is not the end of motorized shades though. Battery motors need no wiring at all, and adding a solar panel means they top themselves up. Pre-wiring buys tidiness and permanence, not the capability itself.

Should I run 24V, PoE or 110V?

24V low voltage suits most houses: it is thin, safe, easy to conceal in a head detail, and it is what most of our Matter motors run on. PoE is the one to choose if your house is being wired with Cat6 anyway or the runs are long — our PoE motors take the Ethernet cable directly, so there is no transformer or splitter to hide in the head, and a single run can cross the house. 110V will do the same job at the same openings — it is not a capability limit — it just costs more per opening for almost nothing you do not already get from the other two.

What does PoE need that 24V does not?

A PoE switch or injector with enough power budget for every motor connected to it, living wherever your network gear lives. In exchange you get one cable type through the house, runs far longer than low voltage manages, and power that can be cycled per port from the rack. If an integrator is already running Cat6 to every room, PoE is usually the tidiest answer.

Do I need an electrician?

For 110V, yes, without question — that is your household line voltage and an electrician’s job. 24V is low voltage and far less hazardous, but you still want it run at rough-in by whoever is already wiring the house, so it is stapled, protected and terminated properly behind the drywall.

What if I have not chosen my shades yet?

That is normal and it is not a problem. Pre-wiring is about getting power to the right place; fabric, color and mount type can all be decided months later. What we do need to know early is which windows are getting motorized shades and roughly where each motor will sit.

Should I pre-wire the whole house or just some rooms?

The whole house, if the walls are open. Choosing room by room means predicting today which windows you will want automated in ten years, and that prediction is usually wrong. The cable is cheap while the studs are exposed; the regret is expensive afterwards. If something genuinely has to be cut, keep the openings you cannot reach.

Does pre-wiring lock me into one brand of shade?

A 110V outlet is universal — any plug-in motor can use it. A 24V supply is more specific: the voltage is common but connectors and transformer placement vary between manufacturers, so confirm the spec with whoever you expect to buy shades from before your electrician runs it.

Pre-Wiring for Motorized Shades: What to Do Before the Drywall

Q: Why 24V rather than 12V?

Because the same motor draws half the current at 24V, and that buys two practical things: a thinner cable for the same run, and roughly four times the length before voltage drop slows the motor at the far end. In a house that usually decides how many power supplies you need — several on 12V to stay near the openings, often just one on 24V. 24V is also where the motor market has moved, ours included.

Motorization•Updated Sep 17, 2026•5 Min Read

If your walls are still open, this is the cheapest hour you will ever spend on window treatments. Power at the window means shades that never need charging, nothing visible in the finished room, and no regret about the one window nobody can reach. Here is what to run, where, and when.

Pre-Wiring for Motorized Shades: What to Do Before the Drywall

The short version

Every motorized shade needs power, and there are only two ways to get it to the motor: a battery inside the shade, which wants a USB recharge every four to six months for as long as you own it, or a wire in the wall, which you never think about again. The wire costs almost nothing while the walls are open and a great deal afterwards — so the real content of this article is a deadline, not a technique: decide before the drywall goes up.

24V, PoE or 110V?

Option	What to run	Where it works	The trade-off
24V low voltage	A low-voltage supply terminating at the motor end of each opening	Everywhere. It is what most of our Matter motors run on, it hides in a slim head detail, and it is safe to work around.	Connectors and transformer placement vary by manufacturer — confirm the spec before it is run.
PoE (Power over Ethernet)	A Cat6 run from the network rack to the motor end of each opening	Everywhere, and further than low voltage can reach — a single run can cross the whole house. Our PoE motors take the cable directly, with no transformer or splitter in the head.	It needs a PoE switch with enough budget for every motor on it, and it ties the shades to the network rack rather than a simple supply.
110V household power	A standard outlet at the head of the opening, concealed within the frame	Everywhere too. This is not a capability limit — a 110V motor will do the same job at the same openings.	It costs more per opening for almost nothing you do not already get from 24V: an electrician, a box and an outlet each time, and an outlet is bulkier to hide.

Why 24V rather than 12V

Low-voltage shade motors used to be 12V, and plenty of older installations still are. At double the voltage the same motor draws half the current, and halving the current buys two things that matter once the cable has to cross a house: it can be thinner for the same job, and it can be far longer before voltage drop starts to slow the motor at the end — roughly four times longer. On a 12V house that limit usually means several supplies scattered around to stay close to the openings. On 24V it is often one.

Thinner cable, and about four times the reach before voltage drop bites — which is usually the difference between one supply and several.

Where the power has to land

This is the one detail worth getting exactly right, and it is geometric rather than electrical: the motor sits at one end of the roller tube, high in the head detail, and the supply has to reach that end. Arriving in the middle of the opening, at the wrong side, or at outlet height below the sill is the difference between a shade that looks built-in and one that has a cord.

Say which end before anyone drills. Get it right at framing and none of it is ever visible again.

How much of the house to pre-wire

All of it, if the walls are open. Choosing room by room means predicting today which windows you will want automated in ten years — after the nursery becomes an office, after the room you never sit in turns out to catch the afternoon sun — and that prediction is only ever wrong in the expensive direction. Wiring an opening does not commit you to motorizing it; it just means you can, whenever you decide to.

One supply, every opening — including the stairwell nobody can reach. While the studs are exposed the extra cable is a rounding error; afterwards it means opening a finished wall.

When to do it, and who to tell

The moment you are aiming for is electrical rough-in, between framing and drywall, when the electrician is already pulling everything else through the studs. It is also the cheapest possible time to ask rather than guess: the framing is visible and nothing is committed. Book a free consultation and we will go through the plans with you — tell us which openings are getting shades and roughly where each motor will sit, and we hand your electrician the supply type, termination point and mounting height for each one. Fabrics, colors and mount types can all wait months. The wiring cannot.

Rough-in is the moment to call. Everything after it gets harder.

A new build in Sunnyvale

We were brought into this project while it was still beams and conduit, which is exactly the right moment. The house has tall staircase windows — the classic case for pre-wiring, since nobody was going to be recharging those twice a year — so we specified supplies at the head of each opening.

The staircase takes direct sun for most of the day, so the shades got a 3% solar fabric to cut the glare without losing the outlook, with black valances to match the slim black window frames. About a year from rough-in to handover.