Z&R Product of the Year Award 2020 presented

VELUX grabs the top prize for the first time

More and more, VELUX Netherlands' Daylight Advice Center in De Meern near Utrecht is coming back to life. When the Netherlands was advised to stay home as much as possible because of corona, a visit was not so obvious for a while and consumers were referred to the virtual variant. But now visits by appointment are possible again and so the presentation of the Z&R Product of the Year Award 2020 could also take place as usual. Thank goodness for that! 

A day has been set for Claudia van Veenendaal-Bleij, Manager of PR and Jolanda de Gooijer, Product Group Manager at VELUX Netherlands are both in De Meern. "For as progressive as we are at VELUX when it comes to product development, we have also been progressive in working from home," notes Claudia van Veenendaal. "We started working from home earlier than was advised by the government. We still work from home part of the time and we like it very much, because it certainly has its advantages."

If you have your home office in the attic, you might just find yourself under a VELUX skylight. But that's without the award-winning, VELUX INTEGRA® blackout blinds. This has been slightly delayed because production has been stopped for a while and is now available from August 1.

Commenting on the award-winning product, magazine manager Ronald Klein of Z&R once again pointed out that VELUX had scored high on several criteria in the judging - otherwise you wouldn't win! - and that the sustainability aspect had also played an important role. For years, VELUX has been committed to the importance of ventilation, fresh air and daylight in the home.

Anyone who still has it can look at Z&R 8 from 2009. It contains a story about Home for Life, an Active House test home in Lystrup, not far from Aarhus in Denmark, where VELUX was already putting these principles into practice and testing them. New developments and insights have of course changed a lot since then, but what VELUX promoted back then still stands firm today.

Letting in as much natural light as possible is another driving force for VELUX. "This is why we make many of our window coverings without cassettes, so that there is as little as possible that reduces the window area and thus reduces the possibility for daylight - and fresh air - to enter," says Claudia van Veenendaal.

Ever hotter summers and increasingly well-insulated homes - increasing the risk of overheating - have given solar shading an extra boost. VELUX of course already had a wide range of window coverings, external blinds and shutters for its skylights, to which a new variant of external blinds is now being added. Until now, VELUX offered for its roof windows a choice between an external sun blind with screen fabric and a roller shutter that in addition to heat protection also provides blackout and burglary prevention.

"To those two solutions, blackout blinds have now been added as a third option," Jolanda de Gooijer explains. "You could say, in between the two already existing products. The darkening exterior sunshade blocks out the sun and heat like an exterior sunshade and darkens for better sleep like a roller shutter. With the great advantage that the skylight is not completely closed, as a roller shutter does. So with the blackout blinds - which have the HR Ready Label - we now have an intermediate solution there, also in terms of price. On the Dutch market, there was definitely a need for a product that repels the heat but doesn't completely close it off, which means we now have a very complete offering."

The graphics show that in terms of performance, the new blackout outdoor blinds occupy a middle position between the other two products and thus very clearly meet a need. Heat protection and blackout are excellent -. almost of the same level as with a roller shutter - and in addition, the blackout outdoor blinds also have a limited insulating, noise-reducing and burglar-resistant function. Like the other blinds, the blackout blinds are also on the VELUX INTEGRA® platform. It can therefore be operated remotely, linked to the home automation system VELUX ACTIVE with NETATMO and powered by solar energy.

And then it's time for the award presentation and photo opportunity. You can do that at the VELUX Daylight Advisory Center, at a blackout exterior awning installed on a dormer base that provides extra space in addition to daylight. The award ceremony marks the conclusion of the 2020 Z&R Product of the Year Award election. The blackout blinds will be available starting in August, and it will become clear whether the Z&R Product of the Year Award jury got it right.