New Conservatory for all year usage, what do I need?

Arfa__

Been looking to add a conservatory to the rear of our house. It'll be East facing and I'm in East London. Probably going to be about 3.5x4m ish in size. We want it to be usable all year around, so mustn't be too hot in summer or too cold in winter. I've read much about how things have come on quite a bit these days, but the question is what tech should I be going for to achieve this? What has the biggest effect? And what tech is most economical, both on initial outlay and running.

Some stuff I've seen that helps:
Half height dwarf wall all round (to mount radiator too).
Underfloor heating ('leccy or water off boiler).
Special roof glass to reflect/retain heat.
Heat pump.
Posh blinds
Roof vents.

Being a bit of a newbie to this stuff, what's essential and what's nice to have?

sunshinetours

Why not consider a garden room, as much of the heat lost through a conservatory is lost through the poly/glass roof.
A garden room would have some sort of insulated solid roof so would be much better insulated.
A heat pump type system may be good for heating and cooling, although being East facing it shouldn't get as hot as a South or West facing room.

Problem is by the time you have upgraded the glass, roof, heating etc you are at a similar cost to a "real extension". Glass will never approach the insulation values of solid matrerial such as brick with insulation etc

julianashcroft

I'm going for this type of roof on my new conservatory to hopefully make it more usable in both summer and winter

Arfa__

I want a conservatory, as it'll be along side out kitchen and used as a dining room. We're only in a small terrace and fed up of having the single living room doubling up for lounge and dining... Don't fancy carting plates of food down the garden to our little garden room, especially in the winter, when its wet, windy and cold! So I'm sure its a good idea, but perhaps not in this instance.

So, yes the conservatory will be used for meals three times a day, everyday, all year. As you say East facing shouldn't get too hot in summer, however, through that last hot spell in June/July our garden was too hot to sit in before 2-3pm...

Been reading up on heat pumps, definitely look like a good option. Like the fact they cool and heat. Spotted this one:
Mitsubishi MSZGC35VA - http://www.airconwarehouse.com/acatalog/Mitsubishi_Wall_Mount_Systems.html
Is this the sort of thing I'd be needing? 3kW cooling, 4kW heating and £700, doesn't seem too bad really.

I guess the question is, will this be adequate alone with fairly standard glass? Or will I also need to upgrade the glass?

moonrakerz

I had a conservatory added to my house (about the size you are looking at).
It faces NE, has 4 toplight opening windows plus an external single door, it is accessed through (original external) French windows.

I have never found it to be too hot to use, opening the toplights and a window in the main house cools it down quite quickly.
In winter, I use a 2kw thermostatic electric convector heater to take the overnight "chill" off (30 mins max), then the heat from the house through the open French windows is adequate.

What is on the floor makes all the difference - mainly through your perception of how warm the floor is. I laid Flotex, having used it before, it always feels warm to your feet.

its_all_gravy

I fit conservatories on a regular basis
go for a garden room with a real roof every time

Mayflower10cat

Our neighbours have a conservatory on the east side of their home and it does get very warm in summer! They have underfloor heating beneath an oak floor - it is pleasant to sit there in the winter.

Ours is on the back of our home, facing north. We're not overlooked, there's fields at the back. It was intended to be our dining room, as we only had a small kitchen/diner but, it's become the most used room in the house! The aerial socket in the kitchen (which we'd never used) was cleverly switched through to the conservatory by our electricians; even with a very old aerial we still get quite a few freeview channels, and we have SkyHD in the lounge. We have two brick walls and two with dwarf walls & windows/doors. The floor is ceramic tiled but the amount of insulation building regs required means the floor isn't all that chilly even in the winter. We also opted for a skylight/velux type roof window - this has been such a boon in this hot summer, it really does help stop the heat building up. We pondered for ages over polycarbonate Vs. glass roof - glass I believe is quieter. We have polycarbonate and it is quite noisy in a heavy downpour. We don't have any blinds, we don't really need them. Our neighbours do, otherwise it would be unbearably hot in the summer.

Heating, we originally were going to run an extra radiator from the combi-boiler. However, various people including the (oil) boilerman said it might work better to have a seperate electric panel heater or storage heater. We still haven't decided what to do permanently, but in the interim this winter, we used a convector heater (with a fan & thermostat) attached to a timer socket. We lock the door through to the kitchen at night so no residual heat creeps through from the house, hence the timer. Setting the timer to come on half an hour before we'd get up worked a treat.

Enjoy your new living space! We certainly have!

spmc

Arfa__ wrote: »

... Don't fancy carting plates of food down the garden to our little garden room, especially in the winter, when its wet, windy and cold! So I'm sure its a good idea, but perhaps not in this instance.

When the previous poster referred to a garden room, I think they were simply suggesting a traditional roof not a detached room - sometimes called a sun room

frogglet

Do you need planning permission for a garden room?

Arfa__

spmc wrote: »

When the previous poster referred to a garden room, I think they were simply suggesting a traditional roof not a detached room - sometimes called a sun room

Oh OK. I'm obviously getting mixed up. I was thinking a garden room was a free standing wooden style room at the bottom of the garden. If it needs planning permission, that will makes things more expensive and cause hassle. You see I thought conservatories are except from planning permission so long as at least 25% of the roof is transparent.

Arfa__

As to heating, the two best options seem to be:-

Radiator off central heating + skylights for cooling.
Or air source heat pump for active heating and cooling.

What puts me off the former is we'll have no active cooling, you simply let the heat escape.
With the latter, surely most of the AC benefits will be lost if the outside door is open, which I guess you'll want to do in the summer...