We’re thinking of installing electric velux’s in our extension roof and have now seen that they do solar powered ones.
This would seem to make a lot of sense due to not needing wiring for them, but how reliable are they?
The blurb says that they store well enough energy for the few times a day we’ll be opening and closing them, but everything else solar powered that I’ve ever tried has been a bit hit and miss.
I really just wondered if anyone else has them fitted?

Might be OK for the warranty period but what about a few years down the line? If I were looking at a house for sale with them fitted I’d expect them to not work.
I presume there’s a manual override?

What’s the need for electric? High windows or want remote?

Sounds like another thing to go wrong.

The electric is quite handy when you realise they auto close when it rains 😀

Got one in our bathroom. A brilliant bit of kit. Only changed the batteries on the remote once otherwise it’s faultless. Closes automatically when it rains and it makes what was previously a damp room into a light airy space.

We need an electric one because my good lady wife informed me that if she had to get a pole and manually operate it, she’d never use it. Nice to hear someone saying something positive about them though.
I’m tempted.

We’ve got electric ones, but solar power would be a step too far. Especially in Yorkshire.

We’ve got six in our loft, been there for 3 years. Faultless so far. Very useful for when it’s hot and you want to open all the windows at once from the landing below to get some airflow. We’d have solar blinds as well on a couple of the windows, you can set them to open and close at certain times, again keeps the heat down.