Conservatory Advice

elephant83

Hi, apologies if I am going over old ground I couldn't find anything recentin my forum search...

I need some advice on conservatories. We are seriously considering a 14sqmon the side of our house. The site is south west facing and gets the sun allthe time. Unfortunately a permanent extension is out of the question. We aretrying to weigh up if we are better to save the money for a future (bigger)house move or spend some money to get more usable space in our current homenow. This option wouldn't add value to the property but we would obviouslybenefit greatly from it.

We will be using the conservatory as an extension to the living space. So toreduce the risk of temperature extremes we are only planning on having twoglazed sides, having the active blue roof and under floor electric heating(along with a radiator).

Does anyone have any experience of the active blue roof? Do you find theneed for roof blinds? Does it really help with heat gains and losses?

Does anyone have the electric under floor heating? Is it any good or just anexpensive gimmick? We have a baby and like the idea of a warm floor for her toplay on as she starts to creep around.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we don't know anyone who has aconservatory.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

A lot of questions depend on what you want to use the extra room for. If it is to view the garden or to work from home. Our conservatory is used as the office all year round.

Ours is about 15 sq m, 3.5 by 4.25m. This gives enough space for a two work desks, 1 permamanent, the otehr for lap top or visitor.

It gets warm in summer if left unventilated, though cools soon. We have air conditioning, but used rarely, if we have been on site for the morning. We have opaque roof, with no blinds, though all round blinds. In winter it will be cold regardless, due to consruction and glass. We have electric heater on frost, which keeps the room fresh during Novemeber through March.

Therefore I would say underfloor heating and roof blinds though nice, are gimmicks.

As you have a baby, just make sure you have dwarf walls built on the base. Flooring, ours is stone tiled, though you could rug or put other flooring down. As it is glass, it is not a nursery, but you can move the dining room into there and use the dining room as the conservatory.

Hatrick24

Hi,

I would just like to give a positive viewpoint on underfloor heating. We have a large conservatory with a tiled floor and the underfloor heating is fantastic. The tiles are always warm to your feet and the whole room is lovely and warm. I would say though, that in our conservatory the underfloor heating is water, not electric.

We do also have electric underfloor heating in all our bathrooms, as once we had it in one, I was converted. I hate the cold and having lovely warm tiles underfoot it just so cosy. I would say go for it!