Can one remote control several rooflights?

The actuator inside an electric rooflight answers to a channel, and a channel can hold one rooflight or several. When a landing has three roof windows in a row, or a loft conversion has a rooflight over the bed and another over the stair void, they can be wired or radio-paired into the same channel so one press moves all of them together. The same remote can usually keep a second channel for a single rooflight that needs to behave differently, such as one over a shower that closes on its own rain sensor regardless of what the rest of the group is doing.

Grouping like this suits a new-town home in Bretton or Orton where a loft conversion often carries two or three rooflights along one slope. It also suits a Fletton-brick terrace where a single small remote by the stairs is easier to live with than one for every window on the landing.

On a mains-powered installation, the electrician usually runs a single control cable from the switch position to each actuator in the group, with the units wired in parallel so they all receive the same signal. Where the rooflights sit further apart, such as one in a bedroom and one over a stairwell, a small control box near the consumer unit can link the runs instead of trailing cable across a ceiling void. Battery and solar units pair by radio, so grouping is a setting in the handset or app rather than an extra cable at all.

• Rooflights on one channel open, close and stop together from a single press
• A rooflight can sit on its own channel if it needs independent timing or a separate sensor
• Radio-paired battery units can be added to or removed from a group without new wiring

Most controllers that group rooflights still let you address one unit on its own, either by holding a button for longer or by selecting it from a short list on the app. This matters where the rooflights in a group serve different rooms. A rooflight over a kitchen extension might need opening on a hot afternoon while a rooflight over a landing stays shut, even though both sit on the same remote for the times when opening everything together is what's wanted, such as venting a whole upstairs before bed.

Building on the wiring above, the practical answer for most homes is to group by function rather than by room: rooflights that always open together, such as a pair over an open-plan loft, on one channel, and any rooflight with its own job, such as a smoke vent rooflight over a stairwell, kept separate so it always answers to its own rules.

A single remote rarely operates rooflights of different makes out of the box, since each manufacturer uses its own signal and app. Where a home already has an older electric rooflight and a new one is being added, the practical route is a controller that supports both, or two remotes kept in a drawer near the switch position, one for each system. Mixing an electric rooflight with a manually opened one on the same remote is not possible, since a manual unit has no actuator for the signal to reach; see manual opening rooflights for how those are worked instead.

Where a project is adding several rooflights at once, choosing one make and one controller from the outset avoids this altogether, and lets every unit sit on the same app or handset from day one. That decision sits alongside the wider choice of how each rooflight is powered; see mains, solar or battery power for how that affects grouping in practice.

Grouping the remote does not group the sensors. A rain sensor fitted to one rooflight closes that unit alone when it starts to rain, even if it shares a channel with three others that stay open. The same applies to a wind sensor on an exposed elevation, which matters across the flat, open ground to the east and north of Peterborough where wind across a roof can be stronger than the street below suggests. Full detail on how the automatic closing works is covered in rain sensors and automatic closing and why a rooflight might need a wind sensor.

None of this changes what matters most from the sofa, the bed or the sink: the frame edge and the glazing bar sit where they sit whether the rooflight is on a shared remote or its own. Where a room holds several rooflights, we plan the switch or keypad position on the same visit as the sightline sketch, so a panel on a wall or a pendant control never ends up in the one spot you look at the glass from. Grouping is a wiring decision behind the scenes; the view stays the deciding factor in front of it.

We cover this at the survey for every job that includes an electric or opening rooflight, alongside power routing, sensor placement and how far each unit needs to travel to vent the room; see how electric opening rooflights work for the fuller picture, and the sightline sketch for how we plan the view itself.

Can a phone app replace the wall switch entirely?

An app can operate a group of rooflights without a wall switch fitted at all, though most homes keep a physical switch as a simple backup for a phone that is out of charge or a visitor who does not have the app. See does an electric rooflight need a wall switch for how the two work together.

Do all the rooflights in a group need to be the same size?

No. Grouping is about the electrical signal reaching each actuator, not the size of the sash, so a larger rooflight over a stairwell and a smaller one over a landing can share a channel provided both actuators suit the same controller.

Can one remote control rooflights on two different roof slopes?

Yes, provided the units are wired into the same control loop or paired to the same radio hub. Distance and any walls between the rooflights can affect a radio signal, so a mains-wired run is the more reliable choice where rooflights sit on opposite slopes of a large loft conversion.

What happens if the group is set wrong and one rooflight should not have opened?

Regrouping channels is usually a setting change in the controller or app rather than new wiring, so a rooflight can be moved onto its own channel, or out of a group, after the installation if the original grouping does not suit how the room is used.