[Closed] conservatories, how do you heat yours ?

we had two radiators in our old house. Did the job nicely. The new house has a small radiator and it's just not up to the job so we just don't go in there when it's cold.

We used a calor gas heater in a flat we rented and it produced masses of condensation. The wallpaper was peeling off and all sorts.

We don't. It's too cold.

My brother put a false ceiling in his, with insulation. Was very cosy.

Anyone put a woodburner in one? I believe plumbing in a radiator means you'd need to jump through planning hoops as it would be a proper extension, not just a conservatory.

Condensation = carbon monoxide! (potentially)

They are lethal things cabinet heaters.

nope. when we built ours they didn't care that we were putting radiators in. You have to have a locking exterior door between the house and conservatory to stop it being called an extension....I think.

I'm sorry, but I read

conservatives, how do you beat yours?

technically building regs will require you to have zone valves for a central heating radiator in the conservatory

this is one of the most common questions we get asked, the answer isnt simple as the walls are commonly low and cant accept std hieght radiators added to which the concrete floors prevent additional rads been added easily..

electric is my usual reccomendation for light use to take the edge off but for full on daily use fill it with as much/many wet radiators as you can..

There's a radiator in ours. Which is amazingly plumbed in upside down. TBH heating it that way is a colossal waste of money. So we use a cheap convector heater.

Hmmm.

I always think why have a room made largely of glass, with no insulation, on a house in England?
It's bloody freezing for two thirds of the year, scorching hot for about 3 weeks and a great place to watch it rain.

We have 2 rads in ours.. A half height one at the far end and a normal one just inside the door.
Was still freezing though so have resealed the windows and doors, fitted insulation and plasterboarded the ceiling and firewall between the properties, and fitted a subfloor and lino instead of the ceramic tiles..
Much less drafty and feels much warmer already.

When we've run out of hardwood from the Amazon rainforest, we have flown in, we burn kittens

I always think why have a room made largely of glass, with no insulation, on a house in England?
It's bloody freezing for two thirds of the year, scorching hot for about 3 weeks and a great place to watch it rain.

Agree. It's awful and is days are numbered in favour of something more sturdy and better insulated.

Hot tap into your neighbours power supply using a couple of large 6" nails and a rubber mallet, attach a set of car jump leads to the nail heads and run them into your conservatory and connect to a 3kw fire with insulating tape - free heat!.

We have a oil filled radiator in ours in addition to the combi fed radiator which was already there.

Combi rad is turned off and the oil rad heats up the conservatory when needed.

Somafunk - which west african country you from 🙂 seen wires thrown over power lines in a similar fashion in nigeria

Ourmaninthenorth, that's the way it's going, more brickwork, less window, approx the same price. Still needs a polycarb / glass roof otherwise planning becomes an issue. The holy grail has been a lightweight solid roof for years. It has always ended up cheaper to do a proper extension.

Anyone put a woodburner in one? I believe plumbing in a radiator means you'd need to jump through planning hoops as it would be a proper extension, not just a conservatory.

I've got a 7 Kw wood burner in mine. Floor area's just a bit less than 6 by 4 m2 to keep it inside permitted development. There were no difficulties with the woodburner. The regs are very clearly written & the HETAS installer I used was excellent.

I can say hand on heart it's the warmest place in the house 8)especially during the winter. We also have a rad in there but it's never on. I don't know anyone else who heats their conservatory in this way. It makes it useable all year & it's nice sitting out there when there's a foot of snow outside.

D.

Yes, their idea of 14 week-long holidays in the thing won't seem so good when they've got four stroppy teenagers 😉

Edit: now that's odd, I replied to a completely different thread...

I always think why have a room made largely of glass, with no insulation, on a house in England?

Ours works fairly well to collect heat from the sun during autumn & spring, which helps out heating the rear half of the house. Anyway, as to heating it, we don't, a room with a single bit of plastic and loads of windows is a complete heat sink.

Still needs a polycarb / glass roof otherwise planning becomes an issue.

We are having a 4x3 conservatory, solid tiled roof & underfloor heating. No planning required.

Ourmaninthenorth, that's the way it's going, more brickwork, less window, approx the same price. Still needs a polycarb / glass roof otherwise planning becomes an issue. The holy grail has been a lightweight solid roof for years. It has always ended up cheaper to do a proper extension.

have a look at [url= http://www.edenfieldconstruction.co.uk/replacement-conservatory-roof ]this[/url]

It's a really good way of making a conservatory more useable..

We have a sun room which is windows on 2 sides and a insulated flat roof. It's a lovely place to be in the summer - unlike many conservatorys that are too hot - but it's still too cold in the winter due not having an insulated floor. I wouldn't waste money heating a proper conservatory except for a oil rad for occasional use.
Wood burner might be an option though.

We had a letter the other day from a window/conservatory company that have started fitting solid roofs with windows in. Roofs are made of plastic but look like slate or pan tile. Whole thing is insulated and you have a choice of ceiling finish and lights.

No issue with planning and can just be retro-fitted to existing conservatories. We're looking into it as ours is either stupid hot or freezing.

We've got an oil filled electric heater but that's quite expensive to run so on cold dark nights we've got a big, thick doubled up curtain we pull across the entrance to stop heat escaping from the living room. That works rather well.

I've got a 7 Kw wood burner in mine. Floor area's just a bit less than 6 by 4 m2 to keep it inside permitted development. There were no difficulties with the woodburner. The regs are very clearly written & the HETAS installer I used was excellent.

I can say hand on heart it's the warmest place in the house 8)especially during the winter. We also have a rad in there but it's never on. I don't know anyone else who heats their conservatory in this way. It makes it useable all year & it's nice sitting out there when there's a foot of snow outside.

I'm very glad to read this - we currently pay to send wood waste to an incinerator so it would be nice to use it to heat (some of) my house for free!

skiprat - Member
We had a letter the other day from a window/conservatory company that have started fitting solid roofs with windows in. Roofs are made of plastic but look like slate or pan tile. Whole thing is insulated and you have a choice of ceiling finish and lights.

No issue with planning and can just be retro-fitted to existing conservatories. We're looking into it as ours is either stupid hot or freezing.

like [url= http://www.edenfieldconstruction.co.uk/replacement-conservatory-roof ]this?[/url]

We were going to have one of these roofs but I got rid of the conservatory as we didn't need the extra space.

Rooley, just like that but it was a different company. I think the look better with these roofs on.

Our conservatory comes off the kitchen (i know it shouldn't but its been on there 10yrs and we bought the house last year) so we don't really use it. We're going to change to kitchen and dining room round so it will work better and become a more used space.

We have a radiator in ours but due to the perspex roof and all the glass if still not very effective at retaining heat. Classic problem of either like an oven in the summer or fridge in the winter.

Heard about changing to a solid insulated roof but had heard various issues regards planning etc. as it would then be classed as an extension rather than conservatory and possibly require diff found /build standards...? Been meaning to look into it further as would give an extra room that could be used year round rather than occasionally.

We had a letter the other day from a window/conservatory company that have started fitting solid roofs with windows in. Roofs are made of plastic but look like slate or pan tile. Whole thing is insulated and you have a choice of ceiling finish and lights.

No issue with planning and can just be retro-fitted to existing conservatories. We're looking into it as ours is either stupid hot or freezing.

Can you let me know how that goes and cost /m^2 please?
We had a flyer through recently too which caught my interest.

I keep mentioning my opposition to free schools, low taxes for the rich, their blatant inner circle of jobs for the privately educated chums etc when ever they come door knocking and it gets them rather hot under the collar...

skiprat - Member

We had a letter the other day from a window/conservatory company that have started fitting solid roofs with windows in. Roofs are made of plastic but look like slate or pan tile. Whole thing is insulated and you have a choice of ceiling finish and lights.

No issue with planning and can just be retro-fitted to existing conservatories. We're looking into it as ours is either stupid hot or freezing.

We looked into this and had a rep quote us £12k to do the roof of our conservatory!

Lets just say, he did not stop to finish his coffee.

If I won the lottery though

As I said solid roofs on conservatories have been something the big companies have been looking at for years. That Guardian roof looks like a bodged conservatory roof, i.e. conservatory roof mated to timber batons. Wendland had something similar some time ago (in fact it could actually be the old Wendland roof, I know Ultraframe killed it when they bought out Wendland but digging deeper it looks like one of the Wendland Fabricators may have picked it up). It was not a well engineered solution.

The big issue is weight, window frames with significant reinforcement won't take tiled roofs (the ones in question use recycled plastic slates that do actually look quite good). I think it's the weight of the roof that determines whether planning is need, better foundations etc.

In fact looks supiciously like the old Wendland Sundyal roof

http://www.wendland.uk.com/consumer/conservatory_lifestyle/101/index-2.html

Bearing in mind the old Wendland roof underneath the tiles wasn't exactly cutting edge either.....

We don't heat ours but it makes a usefully enormous walk-in beer fridge.

Stumpy,

The Guardian roof is a factory made aluminium frame, regardless of who fits/sells it. They are all made in the same factory to ensure the quality for the guarantee. There's certainly no bodging involved.

The tiles are made from recycled plastic/rubber and weigh much less than the equivalent clay/slate tile. I was hard pressed to tell the difference between from a reasonable distance.

Them conservatory roofs look fantastic but I think the price would count me out.
I've been thinking about doing something with my roof for a while now.It's nice and toasty in there but if it rains then the noise is horrific

This is who did the letter drop: -

http://www.solarframe.co.uk/

They have a factory not far from us. Kevi, i'll get a price and let you know.