New Conservatory - Cost & Heating

smartn

We are in the process of purchasing/specifying a conservatory. The size is to be 4m x 3.5m. We are going for top rated glass for the windows/doors/roof and are looking at heating options as we want the room to be usable all year round. One of the walls close to a neighbours property will be primarily brick and well insulated and we will have a dwarf wall which will also be well insulated. I've thought about an extension rather than conservatory but think an extension would cut off too much light to our dining room (although the dining room has a flat roof so may be able to put some sort of roof window in).

So far we have had electric underfloor heating recommended which sounds OK but I was wondering if anyone had experience of air source heat pumps in a conservatory as I think this would be more economical. Ideally I'd like some cooling capacity in summer but the conservatory will be south facing so with the relevant glass this may not be necessary.

It's at the early stages so any experiences/information will be gratefully received on all aspects, not just the heating/cooling. First quote was 14.5K to include underfloor heating/electrics etc.

BertieUK

We have a conservatory fitted to our bungalow which is a similar size to yours and is of an Edwardian design, it was built by a previous occupier. It has a north facing aspect.

We were delighted with it until the summer months came and the heat that built up was incredible, the roof section had limited ventilation and this area trapped the heat, so I would suggest that ventilation was very important indeed.

The UV rays made it very uncomfortable to sit for any lengthy periods when the sun was shining so we fitted film to the upper sections of the roof area which certainly helped a great deal.

Hope that these points will help you in your choice.

smartn

Many thanks for that Bertie. I have decided to go for opening windows at the top all around and we are going for the solar glass option which should hopefully cut out the uv and some of the heat in the summer.

liubeliu

Get a quote for a aircon unit built-in which can heat as well. In an old house we had one with remote control, in winter or summer we would switch on and set temp when we knew we wanted to use it.

I think it added about £800 to the install, our building control would not let us run the GCH into the conservatory so was the best option, in hindsight it was only option as during summer (south facing) without it the conservatory woould have been unbearable even with doors opened.

fluffymuffy

Another vote for the air con with heating. You need a model designed for the British climate though - so it can extract heat from the air even when it's minus something.


We never used the cooling feature on the air con unit. If it's too hot we just open the doors or don't go in there.

ian103

we built a 6 x 5m conservatory at our last house, it had the sun on it all day.

we didn't use it much from November - Easter as we were tucked up nice and warm in our lounge. we heated it for a fortnight over xmas with oil fired rads that worked well.

we never sorted the mid day heat in the summer other than to open the windows at 8 in the morning and leave open all day - great at a weekend but no use in the week, it basically meant that in July / Aaugust it was unusable until about 9pm.

sunshinetours

A roof lantern in your dining room and a window-heavy brick extension would my preference for use year round.
Electric underfloor heating can work out very expensive and may not provide enough heat for use in depths of winter.
Fully south facing will make it incredibly hot inside in height of summer with heat build up so roof vents probably worth having to at least help.
Be aware if south facing your furniture, carpet, soft furnishings etc will fade with sun exposure.
Think about what you want to use the room for most and decide whether a real extension or conservatory meets those needs.
If selling in future think about what will add value.

Furts

smartn wrote: »

We are in the process of purchasing/specifying a conservatory. The size is to be 4m x 3.5m. We are going for top rated glass for the windows/doors/roof and are looking at heating options as we want the room to be usable all year round. One of the walls close to a neighbours property will be primarily brick and well insulated and we will have a dwarf wall which will also be well insulated. I've thought about an extension rather than conservatory but think an extension would cut off too much light to our dining room (although the dining room has a flat roof so may be able to put some sort of roof window in).

So far we have had electric underfloor heating recommended which sounds OK but I was wondering if anyone had experience of air source heat pumps in a conservatory as I think this would be more economical. Ideally I'd like some cooling capacity in summer but the conservatory will be south facing so with the relevant glass this may not be necessary.

It's at the early stages so any experiences/information will be gratefully received on all aspects, not just the heating/cooling. First quote was 14.5K to include underfloor heating/electrics etc.

Have you costed a traditional brick - block extension with a pitched roof?

I have one on a north elevation, which is not a good position for a pvcu conservatory. Traditional build meant reasonable levels of insulation. Accepted I do not have fully glazed walls, but I am not far short of this.

Traditional build matches the house and can be a cheaper way to build. Mine is 5.8mx2.8m internally and cost around £9000.

liubeliu

fluffymuffy wrote: »

Another vote for the air con with heating. You need a model designed for the British climate though - so it can extract heat from the air even when it's minus something.


We never used the cooling feature on the air con unit. If it's too hot we just open the doors or don't go in there.

Very true.

To the OP, we had the aircon unit built into one of the drawf walls by the conservatory company (below is not what we had but shows the type). But I believe spilt units like those found in offices are supposed to be better i.e. quieter

smartn

Many thanks for all the replies so far. All very good and useful information. Just had Anglian around, they really are having a laugh - 29K and they make it out to be a bargain, I will now probably get loads of phone calls with the price coming down dramatically.

BertieUK

smartn wrote: »

Many thanks for all the replies so far. All very good and useful information. Just had Anglian around, they really are having a laugh - 29K and they make it out to be a bargain, I will now probably get loads of phone calls with the price coming down dramatically.

Earlier in your thread I said...

...We were delighted with it until the summer months came and the heat that built up was incredible, the roof section had limited ventilation and this area trapped the heat, so I would suggest that ventilation was very important indeed...

If we had the choice we would have preferred a slated roof so that the heat would not be quite as intense in the summer months as we have experienced. I can only speak of our experiences and ours faces North.

Plus unless you are a stargazer it took some time to get used to the Conservatory at night because we felt so exposed. Curtains or blinds would be needed and we had an estimate for blinds fitted to the roof sections and that came to just over £3K. So as I said before we decided on window film from a company called Primrose.

Condensation can be a big problem if your good lady dries washing within the conservatory, we use a De-Humidifier and it usually collects around 1Litre of moisture overnight.

I am just making you aware of our experiences with our Conservatory, and lastly with us living in a bungalow they fitted an Edwardian style conservatory that is fitted with a box-gutter that runs between the two roof sections making it very difficult cleaning the roof sections.

With all that said I hope that you can imagine what a Conservatory is like to live with, in fact we are putting our property on the market soon because we have to downsize as it is far too big for my wife and I. So we will not buy a property that has a conservatory like this one.;)