Help! Boiling to death with skylights

[Boiledtodeath]

Help please mumsnet!

Our skylights are boiling us to death. 💀 We have had to tarp them in preparation for Mondays 32c.

The difference is incredible! But obviously we are now living in a blue lagoon. It’s like being under the sea 😂

Has anyone tried solar film? External highly reflective solar secondary glazing?

Theres change the glass entirely but £££ and then in winter the warming is good.

Any Bright ideas?!?!

Thank you

We open the doors for airflow. Could you fit blinds, like the Velux ones? Obviously you won't be able to get this done before Monday!

Horribly expensive automatic velux blinds? (My mum has one, I dread to think how much it cost).

"Under the sea" 😁. You'll have to pretend swim around the room.

Why do you live in a garage?

We have blackout blinds on our Fakro roof windows, which are great most of the time, but in this weather they are like little radiators if you leave them closed. You can get blinds that go on the outside, and when it's really hot I take another look at buying and fitting some, but then the weather changes and I think it's not worth it.

How did you fix the tarp on?

I have the same problem so I’m here for the solutions! Mine aren’t lanterns, it’s 6 big glass panels/glazed roof for us. We’re broke after the extension and nursery bills so can’t afford fancy blinds, but we are roasting! We apparently have solar glass so was meant to be fine, but it seems just like normal glass to me!

Have a look at the Sun X website. If it was good enough for the royal palaces I reckon it will sort you out.

We got a cheap blackout blind with suckers on from Amazon. It was extremely effective. If I put a link in this post it will probably get deleted. It's no longer available anyway. But if you message me, I will link you there, so you can search for similar.

That’s the thing, it’s a problem the equivalent of 1-3 months depending on the year.

I am looking at these permanent options but they are so expensive!!! And bulky looking.

The velux exterior shades look the best so far but they are for velux only I think.

I am wondering whether we just make wood frames and staple some kind of fabric to them and prop them up there as required.

@Doggymummar that sounds like a porn site lol 😂

Something like this but make sure you buy it in clear?

https://gilafilms.com/en/home-window-film/heat-control/

It was here when we bought the house and we love it - most of the time 😅

Get an A/C unit surely? In terms of the light coming in itself I’d be looking for some black out blinds or similar that are manual as the auto ones will cost a fortune. You’ll need a long pole and can open / shut to taste - not being automatic / remote controlled won’t be an issue I’d say as you’ll only need to use it a few weeks of the year.

Thank you! I have found some. Did you stick this to the inside or the outside?

This basically.

https://www.orderblinds.co.uk/buy/extendible-1-2-metre-metal-pole-for-skylight-blinds_3024.htm

The blinds themselves seem to be in the region of £35 each so won’t break the bank.

Tinfoil and blue tac with frog tape for extra security works really well. Bit of a hassle to put up though

I can upgrade from under the sea to the spaceship look 😂

Are we really all doing this?! This is mental 😭 But desperate times 🥵

OP we are in the exact same situation with our roof lantern and bifolds making our extension as hot as satans arsehole. We are getting AC fitted this week, we got a quote for 1.5k for a motorised blind but I thought AC seemed more beneficial and will cool the space quickly.

Yes but you need to look at the dull side of the tinfoil.
If you are looking at air con, look at an air 2 air heap pump that does both heating and cooling cycles. Very efficient and everyone who has one seems to love it unlike those of use with air to water heat pumps.

How much is the aircon quotes you are getting?

I think we would need two as it’s the ceilings which are holding the heat and the photo view is only one half. The second part is even taller and there’s a lip so that would need its whole own aircon.

inside

We decided to go with https://www.boxt.co.uk/air-conditioning mainly because of their 0% finance option so we didn’t have to shell out in one lump sum. I’d also read some good reviews.

We got another quote which was for 3k.

Think BOXT were £2,795.

I don't think you'd need 2. Just one powerful enough for the room size. Your installers would measure this and quote accordingly. I paid £1.5k per unit for the smallest, so I'd expect a bit more than that. Worth it's weight in gold though, you cannot beat being able to cool the space.

I might be tempted to put them outside, if it's practical. They will get hot (like little radiators as pp said) and if they are outside then your windows themselves should protect you from their heat.

We have a very hot, south-facing extension (luckily no skylights though!) and we keep all doors between there and the rest of the house closed. This makes a massive difference to the rest of the house (although you practically expire when you have to go in there to cook the dinner!).

If you are thinking of getting air con, do the blinds thing too - it'll be much cheaper to cool a cooler room than to cool one with the sun fighting against you!

We have the exterior velux sun shades on the velux windows in our loft conversion and that definitely makes a difference but they are specific to velux. Might be possible to fit them to other window types as it is not really very high tech. On the other hand they are expensive so would be a costly mistake if they didn’t fit.

There is 20% off the VELUX black out blinds atm! I ordered 2 yesterday! We bought 2 for the kitchen diner a couple of years ago & they have made a big difference so just ordered 2 more for different rooms.
less than £400 for 2 solar powered with remote control.
ours are big windows so don’t know how the price would compare to yours.

They have been useful for keeping the heat in during the winter too.