Motorized Skylight

Overview

A motorized skylight is a roof window that ventilates and shades a room on its own. It admits daylight like a fixed rooflight, but its sash opens under electric drive to vent hot air, and it shuts itself when rain arrives, so it can be left in automatic mode without anyone watching the weather.

The unit sits on a raised base. The Curb Frame & Flashing is an insulated aluminium frame fixed to a roof upstand and wrapped in a Flashing Kit that weaves into the surrounding roof covering to shed water around the opening. The moving leaf is the Glazed Sash, an aluminium frame carrying a sealed Insulated Glass Unit, two or three low-E coated lites over an argon cavity, with a laminated inner pane for overhead safety. The sash is top-hung on stainless Sash Hinge pivots so it swings up off the curb.

How it works

Opening is done by the Chain Drive Actuator. A geared Actuator Motor drives a Push-Chain, an articulated chain that goes rigid as it leaves its casing, pushing the sash open, and folds back inside to pull it closed. The chain runs to fixed limits at each end of travel. When the sash is shut it compresses the Weather Seal Set perimeter gasket, and a drainage gutter in the frame catches and weeps anything that gets past.

The automatic behaviour comes from the Control Board board. Its MCU drives the actuator, decodes the Handheld Remote over RF, and, the point of the product, closes the sash the instant the roof Rain Sensor detects moisture on its conductive grid, beating the rain into the room. The same board can switch an optional Internal Solar Blind, a motorised solar roller below the glass, through a relay to manage glare and solar heat gain.