Open conservatory question

GoldenShadow

It looks like a nice conservatory, is it possible they have really fancy blinds that keep heat in/out? My ex's conservatory want that cold in winter but it was half brick whereas ours is all PVC and much colder.

Also which way does the garden face. Some say conservatories in south or west facing gardens are foolish. Last week when the sun shone in ours I was too hot and had to go and sit elsewhere!

pelirocco

We added a large conservatory last year and chose to not to put doors on as we use it as an extension of our kitchen dining room.we have a radiator in there (it's not glass all the way to the floor , its brick) .We don't have any problems with it making the house cold, I would guess the type of construction of a conservatory would determine it's heat efficiency

Davesnave

pelirocco wrote: »

We added a large conservatory last year and chose to not to put doors on as we use it as an extension of our kitchen dining room.we have a radiator in there (it's not glass all the way to the floor , its brick) .We don't have any problems with it making the house cold, I would guess the type of construction of a conservatory would determine it's heat efficiency

You don't need to do any guessing at all; the thermal efficiency of such a large area of double glazing is very poor, compared with that of properly insulated roofs/walls meeting current building regs.

Of course, it's possible to compensate for heat loss by pumping more energy in, but what the surveyor says when you come to sell may not please you.

Weather varies, but in the south we haven't had too much real winter in recent times. Here, I can still count the number of frosty mornings on the fingers of one hand, so even my house, which has had major surgery, no loft insulation and still leaks heat like a sieve, has been comfortable all winter. I don't delude myself that this hasn't cost anything, however, and I'm just very thankful we didn't do the work between 2009/10.

AdrianC

You don't need to guess at why the EPC is what it is - you can download the full EPC here -> https://www.epcregister.com/reportSearchAddressTerms.html?redirect=reportSearchAddressByPostcode
...and that'll tell you exactly what guesses the EPC assessor made to end up with that random number.

If the doors have been removed, then the simple answer would be to put the doors back on.
Building regs are irrelevant. It, presumably, passed inspection when the conservatory was built - if required - and, even if inspection was required but not made, if it's been complete over a year, they're irrelevant.

Davesnave

Conservatories are exempt from building regs, provided that they have external quality doors between them and the rest of the house.

The Planning Portal says:

"Whilst providing useful space, a badly designed conservatory can be a huge energy drain for the house as a whole.
The key to avoiding this is to separate the conservatory from the rest of the house, so that it can only be accessed via an external (insulated) door, so that it can then be closed off at night and on cold days.
If you want a sunspace that is integral to the rest of the house, it needs to be designed as an extension, with lots more insulation and energy efficient glazing in place."


The last sentence has significant cost implications; hence people's willingness to cut corners, especially when encouraged by double glazing salesmen!

seven-day-weekend

Davesnave wrote: »

Conservatories are exempt from building regs, provided that they have external quality doors between them and the rest of the house.

The Planning Portal says:

"Whilst providing useful space, a badly designed conservatory can be a huge energy drain for the house as a whole.
The key to avoiding this is to separate the conservatory from the rest of the house, so that it can only be accessed via an external (insulated) door, so that it can then be closed off at night and on cold days.
If you want a sunspace that is integral to the rest of the house, it needs to be designed as an extension, with lots more insulation and energy efficient glazing in place."


The last sentence has significant cost implications; hence people's willingness to cut corners, especially when encouraged by double glazing salesmen!

Whilst I agree that this information is accurate, the conservatory under discussion does NOT have doors connecting it to the rest of the house, so therefore would be subject to Building Regs. However I also agree with another poster who says that after a period of time (I think it is two years), then B. Regs can no longer be enforced.

DRP

Is it definitely a glass roof?

If it is polycarb or poor quality glass, you will freeze (and pay £££).

scaredlady

The one thing that hit me is poly carb roof.
We have a conservatory with a poly card roof, but we kept the doors going out to it.
Trust me when its pouring with rain and you have what sounds like a 1000 horses running across the poly roof it very very nice to be able to shut it off.
We have a rad in ours and a dimplex electric fire.It faces south. Winter we can use it,sometimes just heated by the sunshine and rad. Sometimes we need more and the dimplex goes on,but that is just while we are out there. If its sunny door is open, if its not, door closed.

Davesnave

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Whilst I agree that this information is accurate, the conservatory under discussion does NOT have doors connecting it to the rest of the house, so therefore would be subject to Building Regs. However I also agree with another poster who says that after a period of time (I think it is two years), then B. Regs can no longer be enforced.

It's very common for people to take doors away and add radiators to the house system once visits from the BCO are done, and I agree, enforcement isn't the issue. There will be costs, however.

Penalties will be paid via higher fuel bills, and in a poorer return on investment when the house goes up for sale, but as Adrian says, at any point doors could be added.

At the end of the day, it is what it is: a huge extra space and an equally large compromise.

HouseBuyer77

I've got an open conservatory with a polycarb roof. One side is brick (cavity wall I believe). I've got a radiator connected into the main heating system in there. I find it works fine, though as already mentioned rain can get noisy! The winter has been mild this year (only been in the property ~8 months) but on the few days it has been sub-zero I haven't had any big heat issues. Heating bills have been very reasonable. During the summer where we did have some nice hot and sunny days I didn't have any temperature issues.

However my place is a lot smaller (Conservatory maybe 3x4m, it backs on to the sitting room and pretty much doubles the available floor area). When I bough it I figured I could get some doors installed if it turned out to be awful but it hasn't.

I did look into getting a proper roof on but decided it was more trouble than it was worth. A proper roof is far heavier and the structure of the conservatory may not be built to take it. There are companies offering lightweight roofing solutions but frankly I didn't like the look of them (some of them have very glossy websites and videos but gave the impression of being salesman rather than competent builders/roofers).

If you put a proper roof on (whether it ones of these lightweight ones or not) you also have the issue of building regs. As is, without the door, in order to meet regs you simply add a door. With a new roof it could be classed as a ground floor extension and you'd potentially need far more work to get it up to scratch. For example I read the foundations used for a conservatory generally won't meet the requirements for a proper extension.

Whilst your living in it building regs shouldn't be an issue (that is council won't come knocking on your door) but could be when you come to sell.

So all in all I decided it's a bit of a dodgy way to gain a ground floor extension, but it works ok. Turning it into a proper ground floor extension is expensive so I'm better off just paying higher heating bills. Should whoever I sell to raise the building regs issue I'll slap some doors in.

Edit: Should add mine faces north, were it south facing I imagine I'd have more temperature issues in the summer.