Patent ID: 8786236

Claim:
A method of automatically controlling a position of a motorized window treatment, the motorized window treatment adapted to control the amount of sunlight entering a space of a building through a window, the position of the window treatment controllable between an open-limit position and a closed-limit position to control a sunlight penetration distance within the space, the method comprising: receiving a minimum time period that may occur between any two consecutive motorized window treatment movements; prior to the start of a plurality of consecutive time intervals, calculating optimal positions of the motorized window treatment at a plurality of different times during each of the time intervals, where the optimal positions are calculated to prevent the sunlight penetration distance from exceeding the desired maximum sunlight penetration distance during the time intervals; using the optimal positions to determine a respective controlled position to which the motorized window treatment will be controlled during each of the time intervals; and subsequently adjusting the position of the motorized window treatment to the respective controlled position at the beginning of each of the time intervals, such that the sunlight penetration distance does not exceed the desired maximum sunlight penetration distance during the time intervals; wherein each time interval has a length greater than or equal to the minimum time period that may occur between any two consecutive window treatment movements.