South Facing Conservatory

Tojo33

I'm looking to buy a bungalow with a south facing garden.  I'm thinking about a full width conservatory on the back so I can enjoy the garden.  I've read horror stories about south facing conservatories, but was wondering if anyone had installed a new one with a tiled roof and/or glass designed to keep the area cooler?

ashe

Our garden is sometimes unbearably hot in the summer, I'd imagine anything surrounded by glass would be worse no matter how good the roof/glass is. Why not some kind of covered pergola? 

thegreenone

We have a south facing garden and I love our conservatory and spend most of my free time in there.  We couldn't have a proper extension as it would've made the lounge 'a black hole'.

We have solar-reflective glass on the roof and underfloor heating, which we use sparingly as it is expensive but does make it a usable room all year round.  In hindsight, I would've put even more solar-reflective glass, but it's never too hot nor too cold.

If you can have a proper extension, do it, but it wasn't an option for us.

TELLIT01

Our conservatory is west facing and still got extremely hot on sunny days, even with the roof vent open.  It is double glazed but didn't have solar reflective glass.  We had the roof replaced with lightweight 'Guardian Roofing', but one of the sections is still fully glazed to allow more light in.  We certainly get much more use out of it now.

koalakoala

Depends on where you live! In NE Scotland mine is never too hot! Got a proper roof and is very pleasant but never need a window open

Ganga

You lucky people ,we live in the NE of England and i would welcome so much sunshine ,when my mother in law was alive she had a conservatory that faces west but on a good day when we visited for sunday lunch whilst the rest of the family sat in the lounge i sat in the conservatory with my one beer ( i had to drive home in 3 hours time ) and pretended i was in Greece ! marvellous 

Tojo33

I'm in the SE and we do get a bit more sun down here.

Sarahspangles

Tojo33 said:

I'm looking to buy a bungalow with a south facing garden.  I'm thinking about a full width conservatory on the back so I can enjoy the garden.  I've read horror stories about south facing conservatories, but was wondering if anyone had installed a new one with a tiled roof and/or glass designed to keep the area cooler?

Country houses used to be carefully designed to make the most of aspect. A conservatory that faces east can be used as a breakfast room and will provide free heating for the house. The room off this won't be bright later in the day, but this makes it perfect for tv viewing - no glare.  Meanwhile if you have a room that faces west with French doors onto a patio you get daylight for longest into the evening and can watch the sun go down.

I've come round to thinking that a south-facing garden border is the nicest to look out on from the kitchen - but to get that you actually need the kitchen to face north. Then you just need to build in somewhere shady in the garden for midday in the warmest weather. 

_Sam_

We have a bungalow with a north facing garden, I wouldn't swap it for the south facing During summer when it is hot and sunny there is a cool shady area on the patio, and if anyone wants to sunbathe all they have to do is make a step - being a bungalow the extent of the shade is barely couple of meters. The patio gets plenty of morning sun and some afternoon sun, but really protects from the scorching sun of midday.

Another advantage is being able to keep blinds and curtains on the north facing windows open all day long, allowing views to the garden. By contrast we keep them tightly shut on the windows facing the south where the front garden is and the street, to avoid the heat from the sun warming the air inside.

secla

We have a south facing conservatory and its unbearably hot even at moderate temps but it is only a polycarb roof one.
I measured the other day and it was 18 outside 30 inside

FreeBear

_Sam_ said:

We have a bungalow with a north facing garden, I wouldn't swap it for the south facing During summer when it is hot and sunny there is a cool shady area on the patio, and if anyone wants to sunbathe all they have to do is make a step - being a bungalow the extent of the shade is barely couple of meters. The patio gets plenty of morning sun and some afternoon sun, but really protects from the scorching sun of midday.

I agree, a north facing garden is great, depending on what buildings surround you. I'm fortunate that I don't have anything either side to cast much shade. As a consequence, my garden is in full sun pretty much all day during the summer. About 3m of the patio is in shade for some of the day, but early morning and late afternoon, I get all the sunshine I could ask for - This is with a two storey semi.

In the winter months, the front of the house benefits from an appreciable amount of solar heating which means I can delay lighting the fire when the sun is shining.