How to use my conservatory

soraggers

Hello :-)

Hoping for some words of wisdom from those of you who like to make shift with what they've got ;-) Bear with me while I explain what we've got and what we need...

We have no money to spend, except maybe less than £100. We have a tiny shared ownership house with a tiny conservatory on the back (big enough for a dining table and 4 chairs). Its about 5 years old and seems to have been a budget one. It doesn't leak (although occassionally has a mysterious single drip wich we cant work out but never mind). Our windows open so we have ventilation and the floor is stone-tiled.

However, there's no heating or lighting or power supply. Because its shared ownership we are not free to do what we like re: getting builders/plumbers in, not that we could afford to anyway. It is BLOODY WELL FREEZING , except when its boiling...

My husband is a trainee electrician so he has managed to fix an old, 1980s (?) heater in there which we plug in as necessary. This means the conservatory needs time to warm up and whilst doing so its making the living room freezing. We dont know if the heater is economical - it has a dial and blows hot or cold air out underneath it (i.e onto the floor) but its all we have. It was a freebie and does seem fairly efficient and hasn't made our bills rocket.

He's also fixed up a rather dim light (in the only position it can go which is a bad one so not much cop). His next mission is to put in a power supply so we can plug in the heater inside the conservatory instead of using the living room power supply and needing the door open.

The blinds in there are pretty useless but when we moved in I was told 'Oh, its great that you already have blinds' (why???)

The problem is that the room is basically unlivable all year round, its too dark, too hot/ too cold. Yet its much needed space in our tiny house. And we dont have much money.

He's a sort of electrician, I am a dressmaker and am confident to make stuff - including soft furnishings. We can both turn our hands to a little DIY. Anyone got any ideas - how can we make the place warmer, friendlier and usable..??? Bearing in mind that the strong sunlight fades things, the extremes of temperatures, etc

Sorry for the huge ramble, looking for what my great grandmother would have done as we certainly cnt afford such lovelyness as underfloor heating/rebuild etc...

Love S x

redruby

I am not sure what to suggest, but will be watching this thread to see if anyone comes up with suggestions, we have the same problem, but we do have a plug socket in ours, so we can at least plug a heater in, its blooming freezing out there today.

Good luck x

angelavdavis

Paint the roof with greenhouse paint to shade it in summer? This can be washed off in winter time if you find it shades too much.

Put bubble wrap over the glass inside in winter? Not pretty but this will add some insulation. Worked in my old greenhouse. What about a set of heavy lined curtains that can be closed at dusk to keep whatever heat in the room?

Put the heater on timer so it starts up half an hour before you need to use the room, run the cable through one of the windows closed ajar? If not possible, what about drilling a hole through the existing door leading to the conservatory, remove the heater plug, then run cable through door and replace plug so door can be shut while heater on?

How about swapping the light for a multiple spot light so you can direct light around the room?

Not sure if all are relevant/applicable but hopefully one of them will be useful.

bluenose1

WE have an oil filled radiator in our conservatory that quickly heats the room up. Pretty certain that these have cheap running costs.
Could you not drill a hole through the wall to run the fire cable lead through so that you don't have to leave a door open?
Could you buy a cheap rug so that the floor doesn't feel as cold.
Good luck. It sounds with your dressmaiking skills you could make cheap matching curtains, table cloth and seat covers to brighten the room up.
I live near a £2.99 a metre shop and they get some really heavy cotton fabrics in, so it is reasonably cheap to make myself.

flissh

I think, due to most conservatory construction, heating them is usually a bit like trying to heat an outside space, so most are pretty much unusable in the depths of winter. Blinds should help with shading so that you can use it a bit more in the summer.
What they are great for though is early/late summer, sort of prolonging your time spent in the garden
As you have little money to spend, you might be wasting it trying to heat this space.
Sorry to be so gloomy.

artichoke

hi

from an energy saving point of view heating a conservatory is a waste of energy as the design ie glass walls and ceiling is not energy efficient.

It is better to think of a conservatory as being a buffer zone for the room it is against ie the living room in your house. The conservatory acts as a passive solar heater for your living room ie the air in the glass conservatory is warmer than the outside air in the winter (although not my much i know) and so the conservatory acts as insulation for your living room.

I have the same problem in that i have a very old lean-to construction (too old to be called a conservatory and has a plastic corrigated roof) which is on the back of my kitchen. It is freezing in the winter - but i just try to think about how cold it would be in the kitchen if we did not have the lean-to and the kitchen walls were external walls.

You say your house is small and so you need the space in the conservatory.
What other downstairs space do you have in your house? Could you squeeze a small dining table into another room and don't bother trying to heat the conservatory in the winter?

We use our lean to as a utility type room, so i go into the freezing room only to put washing in, put the slow cooker on, turn on the bread maker etc, and then use the kitchen as a kitchen dinner (although it is cramped at least it is warm and cosy)

sorry to be negative - but i do think it is a waste of money / energy to heat a conservatory. From an environmental point of view i really think they should not be encouraged as all year round living spaces.

Is there any way you could use the space in your house differently so the conservatory was no longer a room you sat in but a room to put other things in?

art

jcr16

what i'd be tempted to do is make curtains lined with blackoput lining.( i know you say you have blinds but i like blinds and curtains and since i've had curtins up where i also have blinds i really noticed it seems warmer.) these therefore keep it warm in winter and cool in summer. also on the roor can you pin a cream or pale colour sheet to the celing ? my mum in law used to do this to her conservatory roof. it was amazing how much cooler it made the room in the summer but also loads warmer in the winter. no one ever really looks up at a celing and it can make it look so much cosier.

my hubby is also a sparks so i'd get him to put plug sockets put there via trunking then if we did have to take it down there would only be a few screw holes left from the socket. or you could get him to just run an extention cable out there and put up a couple of these lamps http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4311410/c_1/1%7Ccat_10197552%7CLighting%7C10197854/Trail/searchtext%3EUP+LIGHTER.htm can put a 100w enegery saving bulb in them they give of loads of light. we had them a few years back. tbh i prefer lamps to celing lights. as for the floor, you don't say what flooring you have but if it is a hard floor it'd get a rug to go on it. as for any door's make draft exculder's. there might not be any draft's but they do in the mind for me make me think it is warmer, lo. When your having a meal light candles on the table giving a bit more heat. As for a heater i'd recommend an oli filled rad. They don't seem to cost the earth to run but do seem to give off a fair wack of heat.

hope this helps and give you s few ideas.

Gigervamp

I think I'd take the blinds down and line them with thermal curtain lining.
Get an offcut of carpet or a large rug.
Make curtains (again with thermal lining). Also, how about fitting a heavy curtain across the door so that when you've got it open to allow the cable through, you can close the door curtain to help keep the heat in the living room.

Definitely get a light and electric sockets put in.

Ches

We have a low voltage electic radiator which we used to use in our caravan and its really efficent and cheap to run. I think it came from B&Q. They also do large rugs which would make the space warmer as would lined curtains. I think drilling a hole through the wall into the room with the plug as others have suggested would be the first thing to do. Candles would cheer the room up and give a little heat too.

Westywoodpecker

Ours is only very small too & for the heating it up reason, it's only used between Spring & Autumn, especially by the cat

As Ches said though, candles do help to create warmth (I did say it was small)

[Deleted User]

I have a conservatory at the back of my house .At the moment I use it just to store my fruit and veg although there is a small radiator in there its not warm enough to sit in.I am hoping my son-in-law will shortly put a wooden floor in for me as the tiles do make it very cold.I do have light out there though .I would like to be able to use it as my craft room really as it does get good light during the day.