Consveratory & Heating for Building regs

Wolfsbane2k

Hi..
The conservatory in the house we are trying to buy is heated with a radiator driven from the central heating.
I understand that a conservatories heating system: :

There should be an independent heating system with separate temperature and on/off controls.

from the building regs here

What does this mean? Does having TRV's on the radiator count to this? It allows me to turn them on and off, and they are temperature controlled.

Asking, as i've just thought this 30 seconds before we are due to exchange :mad:

Thanks!

jjlandlord

Yes, but this is not an independent heating system if the radiators are on the central heating system.

In addition it does not say that this is what a conservatory should have, it says that these are the criteria to be exempt from building regs.

Wolfsbane2k

jjlandlord wrote: »

Yes, but this is not an independent heating system if the radiators are on the central heating system.

In addition it does not say that this is what a conservatory should have, it says that these are the criteria to be exempt from building regs.

That's true. Does that really mean that the conservatory should have it's own boiler, or is there some other way around it?
I guess it's likely to be down to the local building regs department to provide a yay or nay if it's needed, but that requires time, something we are short on!

MallyGirl

So they didn't go through Building control when they added the conservatory? Does it comply with all the other requirements for exemption - if not then you don't need to query this one which is more complicated to answer.

harrys_dad

This sounds a warning bell with me. I am just looking into having a conservatory and have been told that if the heating is connected to the central heating of the rest of the house then it is considered a "habitable room", and may not be "permitted development" but need planning permission. How has the entry to the conservatory from the main house been made? Was it an existing door or did they "knock through"? If knocked through that surely would have required building control. You may need to consider asking vendor to pay for an indemnity policy.

MallyGirl

We knocked through a wall for our conservatory and had to go through planning permission and building control. We also had to get a full energy survey done on the whole house as I did not want a permanent door between the house and the conservatory

silvercar

Wolfsbane2k wrote: »

That's true. Does that really mean that the conservatory should have it's own boiler, or is there some other way around it?
I guess it's likely to be down to the local building regs department to provide a yay or nay if it's needed, but that requires time, something we are short on!

Plug in radiator would be one solution.

If the conservatory had building regs sign off and then an extra radiator was added on to the main central heating system at a later stage you would never really know.

DRP

what were the rules when the conservatory was built?

energy and other requirements may well have changed if it was built 10 or 20 years ago.

MallyGirl

we have full planning and building reg signoff on a conservatory where the underfloor heating is run off the same boiler as the rest of the house. I think it only needs to be a separate heating system if you want to be exempt from building regs.

pinkteapot

DRP wrote: »

what were the rules when the conservatory was built?

energy and other requirements may well have changed if it was built 10 or 20 years ago.

I was about to ask the same thing. Our conservatory has a radiator on the central heating system. It was built about 15 years ago.

No-one mentioned building regs during our purchase of the house (two months ago).

dominoman

Doesn't seem a big deal to me.

Lots of people do work to building regs and then alter it after. Nothing wrong with that.

As long as it has its own temperature valve you can turn it off when you don't need to heat the conservatory.