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Motors

Belt, wired and solar drives, including a retrofit without a new cable through the wall. 11 guides.

• Survey

  A solar panel on a north wall

  North light can be enough for a low-draw motor if the panel sees a bright sky and is not buried in a soffit. It can also be a flat battery in January.

• Survey

  A Somfy solar motor in a British winter

  Somfy states that its solar shutter panels charge from natural light, not only direct sun, and that the battery runs the motor after dark. British.

• Survey

  An app is not a switch

  Phones get lost, updated and ignored. A shutter you use every dusk wants a switch by the door or a reliable timer in the motor.

• Survey

  Becker, Selve and Simu

  Somfy is not the only tube-motor maker. Simu sits in the same wider group.

• Survey

  Electricians and a wired shutter

  A new circuit from the consumer unit for mains motors is electrical work and may be notifiable under the building regulations. A solar shutter that.

• Survey

  How long the shutter battery lasts

  These are small batteries cycling a few times a day, not a home storage stack. Makers talk about years of life and then a replacement, not a lifetime.

• Survey

  One button for one elevation

  Four windows on a rear wall should be able to move together and separately. Fitters who only pair one handset to one motor leave you with a juggling.

• Survey

  Replacing a shutter motor

  Tube motors sit inside the axle. Replacement is a known job on standard diameters and a painful job if the curtain has to come out in a tight soffit.

• Long note

  Retrofitting solar roller shutters on UK brick

  A solar roller shutter puts the panel, the battery and the motor in the external box, so a finished brick wall does not need a new cable back to the.

• Survey

  When the solar battery is flat

  Ask how you open the curtain if the battery is empty and you need the door. Some systems have a manual route and some do not.

• Survey

  Whole-house control

  Grouping a rear elevation so it closes when you leave is the feature people actually use. A twelve-step scene that also dims imaginary lights is not.