Electric opening rooflights in Maidstone

Roof windows and rooflights, both with motors

The two products open in different ways. A roof window usually pivots or swings from a hinge, so the sash tilts outward and a gap forms at the bottom or top. A flat-roof rooflight normally has a hinged lid that lifts on one edge, and some roof lanterns carry one or two vents in their glazed sides. Electric versions of each exist, and VELUX roof windows are among the units we fit with electric operation. If you are weighing a pitched-roof model, our page on VELUX windows covers the range.

What the motor takes off your hands

Three jobs move from you to the unit. It opens when the room gets stuffy. It shuts when the weather turns, if a rain sensor is fitted. And it stays out of the way of children and visitors, because nobody has to climb a chair to reach a catch. For a household with someone who struggles to stretch or twist, that last point often decides the whole purchase.

None of it changes the daylight. An electric opening rooflight lights the room exactly as a fixed one of the same size would, with the extra option of letting air through. Where a house has a dark middle and a stale one, the single opening can solve both.

Electric, manual or fixed

A fixed rooflight suits a room that already has good airflow from windows and doors. A manual opener suits a unit within arm's reach, such as a roof window in a chalet bedroom, set low in the slope. The electric version earns its cost where the glass is high, where there is a big flat roof with a lid you cannot lean over, or where the household wants the room to ventilate itself. We help you decide at the survey, and the choice often differs between two rooflights in the same house.

Landings, halls and stairwells

A stair void is a chimney in miniature. Warm air from the whole house climbs it and settles under the roof, which is why the top landing can feel stuffy long before the rooms around it do. The roof window or rooflight above is out of reach by design. A motor lets you ventilate the whole stair void with one press from the foot of the stairs, and it keeps daylight falling onto the hall below.

Bathrooms, en suites and utility rooms

A bathroom in the roof often has no outside wall to hold a window. A rooflight over the shower or the bath gives it daylight and, once it opens, somewhere for steam to go. A utility room next to the kitchen has the same appetite for air: tumble dryer, washing and wet coats. With the control by the door, the glass opens as you walk in and closes when you leave.

Loft studies and chalet bedrooms

Under a sloping ceiling the heat builds up in summer, and a bed placed under the window is a long reach from the sash. A rooflight at the high end of the slope draws warm air out and a lower window lets cooler air in, so the room moves air without a fan. For a bungalow or chalet where a roof window is meant to double as the escape window, the opening has to meet the dimensions set out in the rules, and we cover that in the regulations chapter below.

Garages turned into rooms

A garage conversion keeps the garage's wide, low profile and often only one window on the front. If the roof is flat or shallow, a rooflight over the back half brings light into the part of the room furthest from the glazing, and an opening one lets the new room breathe without a window being added to a side wall.

Orangeries and conservatories

An orangery with a roof lantern is a heat trap on a sunny day. Having one or two vents that open at the top of the lantern lets the hottest air out, and a rain sensor protects the cushions when a shower starts. Our roof lantern page covers the glass and frame side of that product.

Pitched roofs

On a tiled or slated slope, the choice is a roof window. In a VELUX size code such as MK04, the letters give the width and the digits the height. Electric models share those frame sizes with their manual cousins, so a replacement in an existing opening is often straightforward. If your current window is a tired one, our guide to swapping an old VELUX window shows what a like-for-like change involves, and the same logic applies when the new unit is electric.

Flat roofs and extensions

A flat-roof extension takes a rooflight on an upstand, and here the choice of lid, glass and frame opens up. A lid that opens one edge is the straightforward answer for a bathroom or a utility. A larger rooflight or a lantern with a vent suits a kitchen or a garden room. The upstand has to be built for the exact unit, so we measure the opening and the dimensions of the kerb before anything is ordered. Our page on flat roof rooflights goes through the types in detail.

Frame materials and glass

Aluminium frames give slim sight lines and are common on made-to-measure rooflights; uPVC suits white interiors and conservatory refurbishments, and timber-lined roof windows suit loft rooms with pine or painted linings. All of them can carry double glazing. Laminated inner panes improve security, and a toughened outer pane takes weather and the odd stray branch. Thermal performance matters on a unit that opens, because the seal where the sash meets the frame is a joint that a fixed unit does not have. The unit's U-value counts, and so does how its insulation sits against the roof around it.

Standard ranges or bespoke

Where the opening is a standard size, we draw from a manufacturer's range and the lead time is short. Where it is not, a bespoke rooflight is made to measure for the upstand, with electric operation specified at the same time. Every lid, frame and control gets named on the quote.

Mains, low voltage and solar

Some units run from the mains, and others use a low-voltage motor fed through a transformer, which sits in the loft or a cupboard. A third kind is solar powered: a small panel on the unit charges a battery, so no cable reaches the glass at all. Solar suits a spot with no easy cable route, though it relies on the panel getting light, so the aspect of the roof matters. Our guide to solar powered skylights explains where it works.

The cable route

In a loft room with a void behind the slope, the cable runs along a rafter and drops through the lining to a switch. In a bathroom with a plastered ceiling the route is harder, and we look for a path through the void above the plasterboard or down the side of the chimney breast. On a flat roof the cable travels in the upstand or in a duct in the roof build-up, and it has to be sealed against water where it passes through. Where the extension is still being built, the electrician can lay conduit before the ceiling goes up, which saves chasing out walls later. See our guide to powering an electric rooflight for the options in order.

Where the switch goes

Put the switch where you reach for it. By the door of a landing, on the wall beside a bed, near the kitchen island. A remote can live in a drawer or on a hook, and a keypad can be set to open the glass to a chosen position. We mark the spot with you at the survey, because moving a switch after the plaster is dry means cutting into finished work.

Who does the electrics

Fixed wiring in a home falls under the electrical safety rules for dwellings, so the cable and connections have to be installed by someone who can do that work to the standard. Our guide on whether electric rooflights need an electrician sets out what that means for your job. We agree who is carrying out the electrical work before the quote is fixed.

Rain closing

A rain sensor is a small detector on the outside of the unit. When it gets wet it sends the close signal to the motor, so a shower that arrives while you are at work does not run down the inside of the glass onto the carpet. The sensor works with the motor, so we choose it as part of the unit and test it on fitting day, wetting the sensor while you watch. It also suits households who leave the glass open overnight for cooling and do not want to wake to puddles.

Wall controls and remotes

A wall switch is the simplest: press to open, press to close. A handheld remote opens from the sofa or from across the room, and a keypad can take several rooflights at once. Some systems allow timers and links to a phone app. We say what the system you choose can and cannot do on the quote, so the control matches how you actually live.

Ventilation without a window

Hot air collects under the highest glass, so a rooflight vent clears a room more quickly than a side window, which moves air at head height. Opening one rooflight and a window on the opposite side of the house draws air through, and opening only the rooflight in a still room lets the heat leave while cooler air creeps in from below. A lantern on a flat roof can combine a fixed centre with two opening vents, so the glass still lights the middle of the room while the vents do the breathing. For deeper reading on summer heat, read our guide to whether rooflights overheat a room.

Insulation and the closed position

When shut, an electric unit should be as airtight and as well insulated as a manual one. Energy efficiency depends on the whole unit: frame, glazing and the sealed joint where the sash closes. Double glazing with a low-emissivity coating is our starting point, and we specify a U-value that meets the current limits for the type of unit.

Security when it is open

An open rooflight is a gap in the roof. Opening limits, internal locking and laminated glass all matter. On a unit within reach of a garden wall or a flat porch roof, a restricted opening position helps. Closing on a timer or sensor gives a second layer, since the glass will not sit open all night by accident.

Planning

A roof window on a house is usually permitted development under Class C if it projects no more than 150 mm, frame included, beyond the plane of the original roof slope and is no higher than the highest part of the original roof; on a slope forming a side elevation it must also be obscure-glazed and non-opening unless the opening parts are more than 1.7 m above the floor of the room. Householder permitted development does not reach flats or maisonettes, and a condition on an older planning permission may have removed them. A rooflight or lantern on a flat roof normally stands more than 150 mm proud, so it usually calls for a planning application, unless the council confirms in writing that none is needed. Our skylight planning guide sets out the full conditions, including the one for side slopes and the effect of conservation areas and Article 4 directions, and the Planning Portal carries the national guidance.

Building Regulations and energy

Cutting a fresh opening into a roof counts as building work. The structure around it, the energy performance of the glazing and, in some rooms, escape all come in. Under Part L for existing dwellings, a new or replacement roof window has to meet 1.4 W/m²K, or a Window Energy Rating of at least band B, and a rooflight or roof lantern 2.2 W/m²K. We handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable, and the council or a registered approver does the inspection and issues the completion paperwork. Our guide to skylights and Building Regulations goes through the steps.

Electrical work

Fixed wiring in a dwelling also has its own rules, separate from the roof opening. The person who installs the supply and controls works to them, and the paperwork for that sits alongside the roof paperwork. We agree who does what before the price is agreed.

An electric window as an escape window

Escape windows are covered by Approved Document B and apply to storeys no more than 4.5 m above ground level. Turn the loft of a two-storey house into a room and its floor lies higher than 4.5 m, so the normal answer is a protected escape route down the stairs, and the roof window up there is not accepted as the way out. For rooms in the roof of a bungalow or chalet bungalow within that height, a roof window can serve as the escape window when the opening is at least 0.33 m², at least 450 mm wide and 450 mm high, with the bottom of the opening no more than 1,100 mm above the floor and the window staying open without being held. If a motorised window is meant to be that escape route, we raise it at the survey and design around it.

Daylight

The Building Regulations set no daylight requirement for houses in England, so nothing in them obliges you to have glass in a dark room. The case for it is the room's comfort, and the rules only decide how the glass is built in.

The free survey

We visit at no charge, go through the room above and below, and check the roof covering, the structure around the opening and the loft or ceiling void where the cable will pass. We measure the opening or the proposed opening, note the dimensions of any existing frame, and mark switch positions with you. We also ask about the household: who will use the control, whether children are in the house and where the key sits.

The fixed written quote

After the visit you get a fixed written quote that names the unit, its size, frame and glass, the motor and sensor, the controls, the electrical work, the roof work, the finishing indoors and the Building Control notification. Anything the survey turns up appears as its own line.

Fitting day

Fitting follows the roof. On a pitched roof the old window comes out, the new frame goes in with its flashings, and the sash and motor go on. On a flat roof the upstand is formed, then the unit is bedded onto it. Cabling goes in before the lining is closed, and the controls are tested at the end, including the rain sensor. We leave the room clean and show you every control. A small unit can be done in a day; larger work is explained when we quote.

After the work

You receive the completion paperwork, and our 10-year workmanship guarantee comes in writing. Upkeep is light: wipe the sensor, keep the glass and drainage clear of leaves, and check the seals when you clean.

Areas covered

We work from Maidstone across about 30 road miles. Nearby that includes Bearsted, Coxheath, Aylesford, West Malling and Kings Hill, and further out the Medway towns and the Weald. Each council holds its own planning records, which we check for your address. To start, use the quote form, send a photo of the room and the roof to our WhatsApp number, 07880 284133, or email info@orchardskylightsmaidstone.co.uk. For prices, our guide to electric rooflight cost lists the items on a quote, and the costs page covers our other products.