Kitchen/Diner/Conservatory Ideas

rando

We are trying to work out the best use of space within the kitchen & dining room & conservatory. The current idea is to knock through the kitchen into the dining room thus creating a kitchen / diner and then have it refitted. We also have a large conservatory on the back of the house which is off the kitchen & dining room. I would like to make the conservatory a more all year round usable room with bi-folding doors from the kitchen/diner. The only problem is during the winter the conservatory is failry cold and the 2 young kids don't like using it !! It has a ploycarb roof and we use an oil filled radiator as heating. My idea is to install under floor heating (although trying to find out about running costs) and also to replace the polycarb roof with a new glass roof with pilkington k solar reflecting glass but this is very expensive and have been quoted £4k for the new glass roof.
Does anyone have any other ideas as to how we could improve the warmth in the conservatory to make it an all year room. I have also consider knocking it down completely and building a proper brick extension with tiled roof. It would be ideal if i could just get a tiled roof onto existing conservatory but this is not possible according to most people. Any advice appreciated.

IAN_of_PRESTON

My mate has a conservatory with a polycarb roof, he fitted a radiator fed from his main system works a treat, you could also take old roof off and fit triplex polycarb, this will give better heat conservation.

rando

Thanks Ian....I am going to ask a local plumber if fitting a radiator off the current central heating is possible. Will also enquire about triple polycarb roof.

benood

Go for wet underfloor heating - we had electric and it was useless. Otherwise the conservatory will be expensive to heat, extra wolly jumpers perhaps!

rando

its too late for wet underfloor heating as this would mean digging up the floor. The idea was to install electric on the current tiles then to tile over the top again. Looks like a rethink is needed on this.
Does anyone have any experiences with air conditioning units in a conservatory ? one that heats as well as cools ?

gasmanuk

The best way to heat a conservatory is to use a gas wall heater (robinson willey quartz is a brand that i have installed in a lot of consevatories.)
They work on a timer and are very economical as well as warming the room up quickly. The problem with putting a radiator in is that a conservatory has a different climate to the rest of the house, so the heating may turn off via the thermostat but the conservatory may still be cold or the house will be cold and the conservatory red hot.

Canucklehead

Good morning: The conservatory should be thermally separated from the house i.e. heating independent from the main property, connecting doors etc. If you extend the existing central heating system i.e. just add a radiator in the conservatory and remove the doors separating the conservatory from the house then the conservatory becomes an extension under Part L Building regs...also opens a can of worms if you plan to sell on and will have serious implications for your gas bill. In term of 'air conditioning' try the old technology i.e. blinds, open windows and a fan;)

HTH

Canucklehead

rando

never even considered a gas wall heater . so i presume i just need to get a gas supply into the conservatory - would i be able to come off the supply from the kitchen ? will need to get someone out to check for me. hopefully as we intend to have the kichen refitted this maybe something that could be done and solve our heating problem.