Electric curtains are the latest must-have piece of home automation equipment for numerous reasons. Firstly, they’re just plain cool, who wouldn’t want to have automatic curtains?! In all seriousness though they have a couple of uses that may not occur to you at first.

Electric curtains can be used as an effective security measure. Some models, such as the Silent Gliss Autoglide 5900TL will automatically open and close when it gets light and goes dark.

The same model can also be manually programmed with an easy-to-use timer. This means that when you go on holiday or are just generally away from home, your curtains will be simulating someone living in your house! This is also handy for businesses as you can be safe in the knowledge that yes, the curtains are shut on the server room window.

Another novel idea for this same model, the 5900TL, is to use it as an alarm clock. Wake up to the gentle sun’s rays instead of an awful grinding alarm clock either using the light sensor or program your wakeup time into the timer. It is also useful for keeping the bright sun off your TV and upholstery.

Other models such as the Autoglide 5900IR come with a remote control unit so that you can open and close your curtains from wherever you want in the room, you don’t even have to get out of your chair. This model is popular with less-able bodied people in particular because opening and closing curtains can be a task.

The basic model comes with a wall-mountable switch so at the touch of a button you can close and open your curtains.

The one thing that will surprise you is the speed of electric curtains, they’re actually pretty quick, travelling at half a foot (15cm) per second.

If you’re buying electric curtains off the Internet, you usually get the tracks with curtain hangers for you to hang your own curtains, a motor and a control device such as a button, timer, light sensor or remote. They can be fitted very easily with little DIY skill.