How do you heat your conservatory?

Jockanory

Getting back to the original question my neighbour has purchased some of these inserts from a company(not sure if its this one).
Might be worth considering as an option.
http://www.polysert-solarinserts.co.uk/about.html

rome1067

Our roof is glass so inserts no good. All the work has been done to a good standard and elecs will have part p(?) so I'm not worried about any of that. We have had building regs previously on a loft conversion I just don't feel the need to comply just because they say doors should be there. If its cold and needs them then fair enough but if we find its warm enough I won't bother.

System

they dont "just say" door should be there, they have actually done some research in writing the regulations, the door does have a purpose, but if you wish to ignore it then enjoy your massive heating bills

rome1067

As I said, if we find it needs it then we will put them on. I asked for advice on heating it not for people to have a go at me about building regs!;)

GlynD

Well said that woman.

moonrakerz

rome1067 wrote: »

I asked for advice on heating it not for people to have a go at me about building regs!;)

I have a 8' X 12' conservatory on the back of my house, access is through, what were, sliding patio doors.

I must confess to finding some of the comments I often read about the costs of heating a conservatory to be either grossly exaggerated, or to be of the "Fred down the pub, told me" variety !

Even in the coldest of weather (last two winters) I have found my conservatory to be usable whenever I needed it. It is North East facing so gets no sunlight in winter at all.

At night it is not heated, the doors are shut and there are lined curtains inside the main house. In the morning I always have my breakfast in the conservatory. I switch on the 2kW fan/convector heater first, by the time I have got my breakfast sorted the conservatory has warmed up.
After that I usually leave the main door open allowing heat from the main house to percolate into the conservatory - and I turn the heater OFF.
I have all my meals in there and certainly don't believe in sitting in a cold room !

Unless you are trying to keep it at a steady 80+ degrees - I suggest you treat many of the cost figures that are bandied about with a healthy dose of scepticism !

My energy bills are quite normal too

GlynD

moonrakerz wrote: »

I have a 8' X 12' conservatory on the back of my house, access is through, what were, sliding patio doors.

I must confess to finding some of the comments I often read about the costs of heating a conservatory to be either grossly exaggerated, or to be of the "Fred down the pub, told me" variety !

Even in the coldest of weather (last two winters) I have found my conservatory to be usable whenever I needed it. It is North East facing so gets no sunlight in winter at all.

At night it is not heated, the doors are shut and there are lined curtains inside the main house. In the morning I always have my breakfast in the conservatory. I switch on the 2kW fan/convector heater first, by the time I have got my breakfast sorted the conservatory has warmed up.
After that I usually leave the main door open allowing heat from the main house to percolate into the conservatory - and I turn the heater OFF.
I have all my meals in there and certainly don't believe in sitting in a cold room !

Unless you are trying to keep it at a steady 80+ degrees - I suggest you treat many of the cost figures that are bandied about with a healthy dose of scepticism !

My energy bills are quite normal too

An 8' x 12' is quite small though. I'm not saying that to try and make you think ours is better - it's not, the one we have at the moment is quite small too but having owned a much larger one I can tell you that the horror stories some of us have are not understated.

System

rome1067 wrote: »

As I said, if we find it needs it then we will put them on. I asked for advice on heating it not for people to have a go at me about building regs!;)

apologies, but the reason the building regulations require a thermal barrier between a conservatory and a habitable room is that it is completely impractical to have it as one open space due to the increased heating demand coupled with altering the building insulation envelope negatively, but hey i only deal with these things every day of my life so i guess i know nothing...;)

cajef

moonrakerz wrote: »

I have a 8' X 12' conservatory on the back of my house, access is through, what were, sliding patio doors.

Even in the coldest of weather (last two winters) I have found my conservatory to be usable whenever I needed it. It is North East facing so gets no sunlight in winter at all.

At night it is not heated, the doors are shut and there are lined curtains inside the main house. In the morning I always have my breakfast in the conservatory. I switch on the 2kW fan/convector heater first, by the time I have got my breakfast sorted the conservatory has warmed up.

After that I usually leave the main door open allowing heat from the main house to percolate into the conservatory - and I turn the heater OFF.
I have all my meals in there and certainly don't believe in sitting in a cold room !

My energy bills are quite normal too

I was going to post an almost identical post, our conservatory is 3 x 4 mtrs, north facing on a bungalow and we also use ours right through the winter.

We heat it with a 3kW heater set on a timer to come on for an hour just prior to us getting up in the morning, we eat all our meals in it as yourself and we also would not sit in a cold room, usually there is enough heat from the lounge once the door is open to keep it warm and if needed we switch the heater back on for a few minutes, it is surprising how quickly it heats up and how warm it remains once the initial chill has been taken off.