[Closed] Best way to heat a conservatory (under £150)

Heating a conservatory? i think the accepted way is to get brazier in there, throw all your money on it and set it alight. Or an even quicker way is to open all the windows and just throw the money out, unlit.

Yeah thanks for that useful,contribution

Slightly over budget, but best you can do is:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Insulate-conservatory-roof-ceiling-blind-for-conservatory-/251713228241

Is it all glass and plastic walls ?They just don`t retain heat so will be expensive .

We took a radiator out of the living room & put it in the conservatoire ( :-))
just extending the pipework through the wall, about 6' of pipe required. We also have an oil filled radiator that cost £15 in case it gets proper chilly.

£150 won't get you anything worth having.
The only thing which comes to mind is a cheapy b and q type pregassed push fit heat pump if anyone still does them. It'll be a bit shit.

At £195 per m2 that is more than slightly over budget Cody!
And looks kind of horrible
Brick walls, plastic roof
I was looking at something like this (which I appreciate is a little more than £150)
http://www.conservatoryheating.com/acatalog/sunrise-radiant-panel-heater.html
I know it's going to cost more than central heating as it's not as efficient but to put a rad in there would be a big expensive and messy job and mainly only want to protect from frost but have something that is capable of kicking out enough heat to make it comfortable to sit in for a few hours occasionally (Christmas Day for example)
Eventually we will probably replace the roof or turn it into a proper room rather than a conservatory but that's a year or two away

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Knowing how bloomin freezing our conservatory (brick and DG) is in winter with no heating on I'd expect very little comfort for £150. Thankfully we have 4 rads in there that get it proper warm in no time. Need to find a way (better quality TRVs throughout the house?) to better manage distribution of heat though.

Insulate and plasterboard the ceiling.

As above. My brother did that & it made a huge difference.
Need to be careful with damp above it though.
I think he put a little vent/grill either side in the end, to get some air moving through it.

Dehumidifier is more beneficial than heater ime.
We have the dehum on along with a small oil fired rad and our conservatory gets warm enough to sit in in the winter. Although not as warm as rest of house.

Sorry Iain, never noticed that was the m2 price!

Haha yeah it would work out about 10 times my budget!
Turbo trainer is best idea so far, all the Xmas day guests could take it in turns 🙂

Dehumidifier not a bad shout actually

Portable gas heater? Not particularly cheap to run but they throw out a very good heat, should keep you toasty through dinner
[url= http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/in-the-home/portable-gas-heaters.html ]http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/in-the-home/portable-gas-heaters.html[/url]

portable gas heater for when your in there - or a halogen heater - heat you not the space/glass ....

then a set of propper outdoor doors between it and the house for when its not in use.

We use a a Delonghi Dragon 3kw oil filled rad. has a good thermostat & timer. Starts off at full whack for a while but soon reduces power to 2 kw or so and then ticks over. good enough to keep it warm in winter but it's never going to be efficient. we did fit a heat reflecting roof & the best glass so it is about as efficient as it's going to be. We do have a wet rad in there now set low though which provides background warmth when the heating is on.
Use ours as a dining room too.

My mum and dad have got an electric panel/fan heater in their conservatory. Pretty unobtrusive, works fine. It's only a small conservatory though, 10ft square-ish.

A lot of condensation with a calor gas heater, your room needs to be well ventilated.

You could temproarily attaching some insulation to the ceiling e.g. polystyrene tiles, and covering up with some material for aesthetics, in an attempt to retain some of the heat in the room long enough to actually benefit the occupants. For most people I know with concervatories, they are a no-go zone when its really cold so I think your options are limited. I don't have a conservatory (I decided to build an extension instead) but isn't plumbing in a radiator against building regs and also risking pipes freezing and bursting if it gets really cold? Boilers placed in garages have to have a frost stat on them to fire them up when it gets cold to prevent pipes freezing, so if its a risk in a garage where some of the walls have some half decent insulation, its got to be a risk in a conservatory.

I've got one of those sunrise ones you have linked to and it seems to do the job ok. I only turn it on when required and leave the thermostat down really low if the weather turns really cold.

Cheers muddy_bum
Think I'm going to go with one of these, bit bigger than the one I linked to earlier
http://www.conservatoryheating.com/acatalog/sunburst-radiant-panel-heater.html
Combined with the digital programmer
More than I wanted to spend but I reckon it should do the job and seems to only get good reviews http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunburst-Radiant-Panel-Heater-2kw/dp/B001GM5BL4#customerReviews

We also use a delongi dragon works well we have both roof and window blinds which also help to control the temp.

Need to find a way (better quality TRVs throughout the house?) to better manage distribution of heat though.

Honeywell Evohome.

Somewhat over budget, but long term this has got to be the answer to an unusable conservatory:
http://www.guardianconservatoryroofs.co.uk

We have a dehumidifier £70 second hand off eBay and a delonghi dragon oil radiator thing £60 off eBay and some of those humidity catchers that are a few quid from staples. I really don't want to heat it but occasionally we have parties or I use it for teaching. The dragon was useless so I sold it and got 2 halgon heaters which were much better. The secret is to keep it ventilated and dry by taking the humidity out. To be honest it's fighting a losing battle as it's just not built to retain heat in the winter. My solution would fit in your budget but I'd spend as much of your £150 on dehumidifier and just get the heater(s) from b&m for about £10

My MIL has a wooden frame conservatory with underground heating and a stone floor, she also uses a dehumidifier, It's the only conservatory I know of that's comfortable all year round.

Make four of these? -

No idea on cost, but have you considered an air conditioning unit? Obviously they heat as well as cool, provide blown air heating which will allow quick heat up time so you can avoid having to keep the conservatory at a lower heat level when not occupied. Apparently more powerful and more efficient than halogen, but then I did read that on a potentially biased air conditioning website!

I think they also lower humidity so solving two issues in one. Or three if you plan to use it in summer occasionally.

Here is a few to choose from
[url= http://adax-solaire.com/presta/ ]ADAX[/url]

I too use a Delonghi Dragon heater with thermostatic control and timer but now it's getting cooler I have it set so that when the doors opened or closed it's the same temperature as the rest of the house...about 18-19C. That costs around £100 a year to run so doesn't matter what time of the day or night or what the weather is outside you can sit out there in a t shirt and shorts.
It does help a hell of a lot if the concrete floor pad has 6" of insulation under it plus insulating liner for the laminate flooring and check the draught proof stripping in the eaves area to reduce unecessary draughts.