HD Fowler details

Tapani,inc gave us a call about a year ago and asked for help in providing window treatments on a new project they were working on. Our team here at Valley Shades gave the plans and specs a review and said sure we can help with this. We provided a bid proposal and within a few months, we were awarded the project.

Now winning a project doesn’t always mean we got everything right. We had to review and revise this project as we had initially thought they wanted motorized shades in the upper windows in the warehouse. The project manager informed us this was not the case and so we adjusted our number accordingly. From time to time we have situations like this and are more than willing to adjust our product pricing.

Battery-Powered Shades

What they needed were shades for the exterior windows in the lobby, conference, and office spaces. The windows above the lobby needed motorization but unfortunately, they hadn’t placed 120v wire to the window units. Which was ok because we had a solution for this. What we were able to provide was a battery-powered option. Now you have 3 different options when it comes to a low voltage battery pack system. You have:

Battery pack wand – which you have to provide 8-12 AA batteries may be lithium-ion.
Rechargeable battery wand – this allows you to just plug in the battery pack when it has died and give it new life by simply plugging it in and charging the battery wand back up.
Solar battery wand – and in this case the solar pack that is placed right at the window constantly receives sunlight and will continually keep the battery wand charged.

The solar battery wand is a great solution when dealing with windows up high when you have less accessibility to them. Unfortunately, this is not what we all chose for this but can be a simple fix of just purchasing solar battery wands and plugging them into the motors.

They did go with the rechargeable battery wand from Somfy. Still a good option as it will reduce the cost of not always having to buy batteries each time. They will now simply recharge each wand as they get low in power and proceed with plugging them back in for use.

Tapani, inc had a scissor lift on-site which made installing these 8 battery motorized shades a breeze. When having access to a lift on a project with high windows makes each install so much safer and much more productive. Thanks for letting us utilize the machine.

The installation process went quite smooth for the manual shades in the conference, lobby, and office spaces. There were a couple of stairwells we had to get into by using our little giant ladders. These ladders a great as they feel super secure and safe when up on top straddling the ladder. Manual shades from Draper go in with such ease. Brackets are easy to work with and the fascia snaps on nice. Each manufacturer has a different style to the operating systems and I am very happy with Drapers shade products.

Here are the steps:

Install the brackets.
Remove the screw in the clutch that covers the chain.
Install shade – place the spring idle end in and hook the clutch into place being mindful to pinch the chain so it falls into the guide properly.
Snap the fascia on
Attach the bead stops for the upper and lower limits
Install the chain guide hold down for safety.

Video

We made a video that is only a minute long nothing significant or beautiful about it but they were programmed to two channels. One for the East side and one for the South side. Easy to operate just select the channel you wish to operate and choose which direction you’d like to go. Up or Down.

Battery-Powered Shades

Look forward to our next project with Tapani, Inc which will be their headquarters, and then following up will be Alena apartments. So look out for those two posts in the near future.