south-west facing sunroom for bungalow

spurdog1

We bought this afew years back but should have come here sooner.

We have a southwest sunroom for our bungalow. there are neighbours who also have them. hot in summer, perishing in winter.
They could never solve.

We first had reflective film, no result.
Then reflective blinds, fabric vertical. (what the last owner had).
we tried painting the roof to block, nope...didn't work

Tommy Walsh recently sang praises of blackout curtains, but wont the damp damage the curtains?

My next thought was a velux overhead blinds (blackout)
https://www.veluxblindsdirect.co.uk/product/velux-blinds/roller-shutters
Am I chasing an unresolvable problem?

Slinky

You say reflective film, what sort is it? We have a solar reflecting coating on our recently installed sun room windows. It does make a huge difference. We have a solid roof though and the sun is only on the room from about 12.30 onwards.  It's cooler in the winter than I would like, but you can't have it both ways.

Why did you paint the roof black? Black absorbs heat not reflects it.

mexican_dave

I realise this is no use, but the Government backed Building Research Authority, who carry out real-world tests of construction types and techuniques say, the best place for a sunroom/conservatory is the north side. Not too hot in summer, maybe bearable in spring and autumn, useless in winter. I say unless very cleverly constructed with eco-heating systems, why have them?

LightFlare

We had solar reflecting film installed on our SW facing glass roof a few years ago.

The temp dropped by about 10 degrees C. Previously we were getting low 40s, now we max at low 30s

As above, the winter temp is also cooler, but that’s more easily dealt with

Silvertabby

mexican_dave said:

I realise this is no use, but the Government backed Building Research Authority, who carry out real-world tests of construction types and techuniques say, the best place for a sunroom/conservatory is the north side. Not too hot in summer, maybe bearable in spring and autumn, useless in winter. I say unless very cleverly constructed with eco-heating systems, why have them?

Ours (more brickwork than your standard conservatory) is east facing, and is in full use all year round.  

Eldi_Dos

Depending on size and layout of the garden, deciduous trees placed to provide shade in the summer months can help.

Slinky

mexican_dave said:

I realise this is no use, but the Government backed Building Research Authority, who carry out real-world tests of construction types and techuniques say, the best place for a sunroom/conservatory is the north side. Not too hot in summer, maybe bearable in spring and autumn, useless in winter. I say unless very cleverly constructed with eco-heating systems, why have them?

We had a north facing conservatory which used to catch a strip of sunshine between two houses for a short period in the afternoon. It could be sweltering even with just that amount. This persuaded us that the two extensions we've had done on two homes since had solid roofs under building regs. Our latest one has particularly large windows which we had coated, and I'm glad we did.