Velux Energy Blinds? Are they fiddly?

[Twillow]

I like the look of these but can't decide if they're more or less practical than standard blackout ones.

Has anyone got them? Are they fiddly to operate?? Will cats damage them??? Or shall I go for the Duo blinds with the extra light screen??? HELP MEEEEE

Is there a showroom anywhere for Velux blinds?

No idea, we've just ordered normal blackout ones. I liked the idea of electric ones but we might be building an extension on top in a few years and I couldn't justify the extra money & hassle. As a side note once you've chosen what you want look at roofblinds.co.uk - they're about 1/3 cheaper than buying from Velux direct, although you have to wait slightly longer as they ship from abroad.

We have velux duo blinds, not quite sure what the energy ones are but agree that roofblinds is the place to buy them

Oooh tell me more about the duo! What do they look like from the outside, do you think it would look odd to have duo in one room and plain blackout in the other (same elevation)?
Have looked at Vale already, they are a lot cheaper than Velux, will look at roofblinds too thanks.

The energy blinds are hollow pleated ones that aren't fixed at the top either so you can slide them to any part of the window. It says they have 30% or so better insulating properties.
Two of my windows are inconveniently placed though, so I might go for the solar controls on those.

They're not fiddly if you can reach them but expect they might be if you were trying to use a pole. I feel they might be slightly less durable than the simpler blackout blinds.

I've bought a few times from Vale with no problems.

We bought ours from blinds2go - just the cheapest blackout option. Fiddly to fit but great now it's in!

I've got an energy blind on one of my Veluxes and I like it. It was really easy to fit and I like the fact that I can lower the top half so that light comes in but we've still got privacy (it's quite a low window). It's really helped reduce the overheating we used to get in that room in summer, as it's south facing.

It's not the prettiest thing to look at but practicality was more important to me.

Sorry OP I missed this. We have a mix of Duo and normal blackout in our bedroom velux (a cabrio balcony window with a small velux window fitted above it). They’re in the same colour way/material for the blackout bit so the only difference is that the duo ones have an option to let light in but keep privacy.

Hard to say what they look like outside - I’d say the angle of our roof means you can’t really see them.

We've just replaced blackout ones with the pleated ones and they were super easy to fit. We can now open and close them with a remote which is a dream compared to previously wobbling around on top of a table with a pole!