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Yes, that’s the theory. In practice, the videos I’ve seen suggest plugging into the power supply is quite fiddly.

That's reassuring. Might just be easier to get the solar powered one then. It's about £10 more, but less fiddly to install I believe.

I have a Velux Integra GGL window which is wired in and runs off our main electricity. I need to purchase and install a blackout blind for it. Options are solar or an electric one. The solar one is easier to install but the battery will eventually need replacing in 7 to 10 years time. The roof light is east facing so should get plenty of sun, though not sure if that's enough in the darkest depths of winter. I'm considering the electric option, but concerned it may be tricky to install the electric connection, though apparently it is relatively plug and play friendly... Anyone have experience of installing these? The other complexity is the skylight in question is fairly high up (the bottom of it is about 2.3m above floor height) so I'm not sure I'll be able to do it with just my ladder. Might need to get two ladders and build a platform.

No.

@TonyT do you own a Netatmo doorbell? If so, are you happy with it?

I think both with the Netatmo automation you can control both opening and closing of the roller shutter and of the window. So if I've understood it correctly (and that's a big IF right now): at night we could go to bed with the roller shutter open (as there is no solar gain after 1pm on that side of the house) and the window open as it would be desirable to have ventilation over night we could set it to close the roller shutter and close the window at sunrise. What would be particularly good if there is sufficiently detailed control to allow the roller shutter to close at sunrise, but the window to remain slightly open, so ventilation continues until the outside temperature reaches a certain level. For that, I need someone who owns this setup to volunteer their experience.

@JohnMo you make me laugh. That's not automation. That's do it yourself. We like to have the ventilation from the velux at night and I'm not getting up at the crack of dawn to close the roller shutters and close the window. Will research how reliable Netatmo for Velux is. We have good wifi so I'd be surprised if there was an issue, but you never know.

Thanks @Russdl. Yes, I currently try and do this and have external temperature data from our Brink Flair 400 MVHR machine which I use for deciding when to do that. The issue I will have is how to integrate that temperature data for automating this. Velux smart kit Netatmo can apparently speak to Apple Homekit so that may be one option (although I don't currently use Apple Homekit, I could given I'm an iphone user and have other mac devices as well). Another possibility is to rely on the Netatmo's ability to consult local weather forecasts, though I do wonder whether those are accurate enough. Anyone have any experience with automation of these windows/blinds through Velux Netatmo?

Hi @Omnibuswoman, also wondering whether you ever made this decision? My understanding is that the advantages of the roller blind is it excludes 90% to 95% of the solar gain, whereas the awning only does about 75%, but the disadvantage of the roller blind is that when the roller blind is closed to block out the heat the amount you can open it for ventilation is severely restricted. You can still get a little ventilation, but not much. Both my velux roof windows are east facing, so solar gain is mainly an issue from an hour or so after sunrise until about noon or 1pm. So maybe I should go for the roller shutter, and automate it with the Netatmo thingy to shut out the sun completely from sunrise to 1pm, then open up completely to provide ventilation. But it's quite a big decision, so curious to know whether you made it and how you've found it.

But isn’t the regular HEx good for keeping the house damp free in regular conditions, ie when not using air con.Or with the enthalpy HEx, can you set the target RH% ?

But I wasn’t planning on using the Air Comfort to cool the air - that’s why I’m confused. I’m just using it to add moisture. You are right though, that the marketing docs don’t appear to say anything about moisture addition

I'm a little confused by the reference to ASHP and the temperature of the water connected to the Air Comfort unit. We don't have ASHP. We heat our home with a gas boiler. That said, I did plumb in the larger diameter pipes for our underfloor heating system with the idea that eventually, when hopefully ASHP is more affordable and less bulky we could install that, but I still have 9 year warranty left on my boiler, so aren't exploring those options at the moment. The change I'm proposing is to simultaneously install two things: A split AC unit such as a 2.5kW Daikin Stylish in our bedroom; and A Brink Air Comfort unit simply to add moisture to the air when the air con unit is running, because otherwise my understanding is that combination of AC and MVHR is air that is too dry to be comfortable for those with sensitivities to these things. So my question was whether installing a Brink Air Comfort unit is feasible when installed on just one duct in a house, as opposed to the whole system. It should in theory be possible to just add moisture to the room with AC, given that room has its own dedicated duct from the MVHR, but the Brink Air Comfort will add resistance and that will surely impact the pressure and noise of the air supply. But maybe there are simple workarounds. Alternatively, we could add the Brink Air Comfort to the whole MVHR system, as this would add moisture to the air in the whole house. That is not terrible I suppose as we won't run the air con all the time. Probably just for 90 minutes before we go to bed to get the room to temp and then through the night to keep it at temperature.

I have a Brink Flair 400 MVHR system. We've had it for about 2.5 years and been happy with it. No issues really. We have lots of solar gain problems in the house. Despite specifying SN70/30 glass for most windows, this has not been enough. We have a fair amount of glazing and the house overheats from about May to September. Whilst we are looking to retrofit other options including external shutters on some veluxes and perhaps on some west facing windows, an appealling fix for our master bedroom is to install air con so that we can at least bring the temp to below 20C at night. A downside of this however is that it will dry our bedroom, given that MVHR already brings the RH down to 40% to 49% (and usually closer to the bottom of that range). One solution is to install the Brink Air Comfort module. According to ChatGPT: What Brink Air Comfort Does Adds moisture (via cold water evaporation) to the supply air of your MVHR system. This humidified air is then delivered to every room with a supply vent, not just the bedroom. The system runs based on: Indoor humidity sensors Outdoor air humidity User-set targets (e.g. 40–45% RH) It works with an inline unit which oridinarily is placed into the incoming inlet for the whole house. I'm considering doing it just for the bedroom duct. Anyone see an issue with this? It would impact pressure which is not ideal. Need to think how to resolve that and whether it will add noise, also not ideal.

Just tell the window surveyor that you have super powers enabling you to see through the door.

I don’t think this can be right. MVHR will not cool your house.