Whitesales electric opening flat glass rooflight

Last month, Whitesales launched its first electric opening flat glass rooflight with a completely concealed motor. To coincide with that, we are reminding installers what they – and their customers - need to look for when they are choosing a quality flat glass roof window.

THE ESSENTIALS

There are four elements which, for us, are must haves:

1.Laminated Glass

The inner pane of a rooflight should be made from laminated glass. If the glass is damaged at any point, the fact that the two sheets of glass on the inside are bonded together with interlayers ensures that large fragments are held in place rather than shattering and falling into the room below.

2.Class 1 CWCT Performance

Class 1 performance gives you the reassurance that the rooflight has been tested to show that it’s strong enough to allow someone to walk on it occasionally for maintenance or cleaning only and will support a person if they slipped and fell onto it. The minimum non-fragility classification in the CWCT (Centre for Window & Cladding Technology) TN66 and 67 testing is Class 2 which relates to slipping and falling only, but our recommendation is always for Class 1.

3.True thermal break design

The frame design needs to incorporate specific features to achieve a ‘true’ thermal break for assessing the whole product U-Value. For Part L of the Building Regs, we don’t believe it is it enough to use foam strips for the thermal break, because these can potentially deteriorate over time and lose their efficiency.

4.Factory bonded glass unit

Poorly designed rooflights, or ones that are installed at less than the recommended 5-15° pitch, run the risk of water building up on the glazing and eventually penetrating the edge seals and tracking back on the underside of the glass. To avoid this, it is always best to choose a unit where the glass unit has been factory bonded into the frame so that it is fully watertight.

THE OPTIONALS

For the installer, there are some nice to have elements which make life easier on site and minimise the risk of costly remedials:

Factory pre-glazed units save time on the installation

Rooflights which are compatible with either site-formed builders’ upstands or available with PVC-U proprietary upstands offer greater flexibility

15 standard sizes available from stock and bespoke sizes on request make ordering and logistics considerably easier

Choosing a motor mounted chain down as standard minimises water and moisture entering the motors and reduces call backs

If access to the motors is required once installed, the best and easiest option is to fit a motor which can detached via a special bracket from the inside

Whitesales’ new concealed motor electric opening option has been designed for those projects where the priority is for ventilation with a sleek, modern look. The motor and the wiring are fully concealed within the subframe so, when the rooflight is closed, the motor is not visible. Depending on the size of the rooflight, users are supplied with either a single or tandem motor and these operate via a single control panel, with the intelligent motors communicating directly with each other.

More information on the complete Whitesales range, including the new concealed motor is at: www.whitesales.co.uk