Conservatory roof query - higher spec glass or blinds

Sand1512

I am about to order a 4m by 5m glass conservatory and am trying to understand how best to regulate the temperature all year round. The space will be used by my young children. I have been getting conflicting advice from the varying sales advisors and as such am a little confused.

I am looking to use Planitherm as the main product, but have been advised to go with the standard 4mm roof glass by one advisor (and to get roof blinds as well), whilst another advisor has advised to up spec to 6mm glass (going without any blinds).

Can anyone give me some independant advice/guidance on this as I don't really know how hot Conservatories can get. The garden is largely South facing.

Thanks in advance.

xyz123

Sand1512 wrote: »

I am about to order a 4m by 5m glass conservatory and am trying to understand how best to regulate the temperature all year round. The space will be used by my young children. I have been getting conflicting advice from the varying sales advisors and as such am a little confused.

I am looking to use Planitherm as the main product, but have been advised to go with the standard 4mm roof glass by one advisor (and to get roof blinds as well), whilst another advisor has advised to up spec to 6mm glass (going without any blinds).

Can anyone give me some independant advice/guidance on this as I don't really know how hot Conservatories can get. The garden is largely South facing.

Thanks in advance.

You may not like it but its extremely difficult to regulate conservatory temperature. If you can afford it, get an extension. better value add to hosue in my opinion.

Dont know about the glass you quoted, but one of our friends had blinds fitted to their conservatory and blinds hardly made any difference!

Sand1512

Thank you XYZ123.

An extension would always be my first choice as well, however due to layout of my plot an extension would completely close off my lounge and as such a conservatory (to allow unrestricted natural light flow to the lounge) is only real option.

I appreciate that no option will be perfect, but want to give ourselves the best chance. I was very interested by your blinds comment.

Sand1512

phoenix_w

Sand1512, I had a really pricey conservatory with wet underfloor heating and a rather expensive glass roof which was supposed to keep out the heat/keep in the warmth. It doesn't work as well as the marketing says, unfortunately. It's still far too hot in summer and far too cold in winter - the UFH kept your feet lovely and toasty in winter, but the heat loss from the roof/windows meant the rest of your body felt freezing.

Blinds, as alluded to by the other poster, make no difference apart from preventing you being blinded by the sun - once the heat has entered through the glass it's in the structure - roof blinds are scarily expensive as well, so much for some designs that a proper roof may be cheaper overall.

If you're intending to use your conservatory as a proper extension, please reconsider. A proper extension with skylights will be usable all year 'round and give you a comfortable level of light. Please don't erect a conservatory - you'll regret it.

PheoUK

If you want to reduce heat, pick the best glass.

Then be aware it'll still be boiling. It's essentially a big green house.

Blinds on the inside will reduce glare, but won't do much about the heat, because that's already being created.

One option is to put a blind outside over the top of the conservatory, which stops the sun hitting the glass and will be effective.

Are you intending this conservatory to be used year round? If so, I think you will also have a shock in the winter - ours gets very very cold! And pretty quickly too.

Really they are very much occasional rooms. Would an extension with a skylight be a better option?

MallyGirl

We went down the orangery route as a south/south west facing conservatory would have been unusable most of the year. There is wet UFH and the roof vents automatically open when the temp hits a certain point (26 degrees). Even with all of that we opened the massive folding sliding doors (2m high and 5 m wide) last weekend and it was still 28 degrees in there in March!
This was a much more expensive option than a conservatory though so that would be a factor.
We have a full side wall next to the neighbours, a glass side door on the opposite wall and then the folding windows across the back, with a roof lantern, and the light in the connected room is far more than before the work where there was just a window.

phoenix_w

Also: "Can anyone give me some independant advice/guidance on this as I don't really know how hot Conservatories can get."

The answer is STUPIDLY hot. Our south facing one could get well over 30 deg C in summer even with windows open - so hot that our A/C unit couldn't cool the space to under 25 deg C until late in the afternoon. Our cats loved the conservatory because it was so hot, but you could see how much of their drinking water was evaporated in a day and the water would be warm to the touch even the bowl we placed in a shady area.

I beg you, please don't consider one until you've actually been in one. Visit a friend/relative with one on a relatively sunny day.

One positive thing about conservatories is that they generate a lot of heat during early spring - we almost never used our central heating this time of the year because we just opened the conservatory doors and heated up the whole house for free.

jm2926

[QUOTE=phoenix_w;68047077
One positive thing about conservatories is that they generate a lot of heat during early spring - we almost never used our central heating this time of the year because we just opened the conservatory doors and heated up the whole house for free.[/QUOTE]

We do that too, and it's lovely to experience the outside with the warmth of the conservatory. Perhaps it depends how far north you are, in Scotland ours gets pretty warm, but not unusable in summer. Although we have large trees so it is often in shade depending on the time of day, or if the sun is very warm we would rather be totally outside anyway.

In winter it is as cold as outside minus the wind, it has no heating as I'm not willing to spend that much. It is huge and only has full wall on 1 short side, and dwarf walls on the rest.

MallyGirl

we also open the doors to the rest of the house when it is warm in the orangery to make use of the excess heat (very cold house) and keep the overall temp down. When it cools off we shut the doors again so that it is nice in the morning - we have breakfast in there and hardly heat the rest of the house in the morning

Sand1512

Thank you everyone. The comments are really useful and will allow me to have another conversation with my wife and the builder to make sure that we are getting exactly what we want.

Have a great weekend all