Conservatory glass & heating help reqd

[zappa]

Getting a 6 x 3.5m one built soon with dwarf walls / one end bricked. Been thinking of upgrading to triple glazing (u value =0.7) and Clecius one roof (u value = 1.8 ) at additional cost of about £900. Is this worth it and will it dramatically reduce heat loss cos looking at using this as often as possible?

I know that in winter they are pretty unusable unless you go overboard on the heating system, but any advice on whether elec UFH (quoted at £1600 for 18m2 of 20mm insulation, 15m2 200w/m2 mat / latex screed) is better than a couple of decent 2 kw stat controlled elec panel radiators?

Thanks

 

[foxhole]

You could go for insulated roof if you get enough light thru the glass walls.

 

[zappa]

You could go for insulated roof if you get enough light thru the glass walls.

Wouldn't want it covered during spring / summer months. Maybe an option as a temp measure when it gets baltic. What would you suggest as something fairly cheap but effective or reuseable?

 

[Pinnacle69]

pilkington active blue self cleaning glass roof will give you 1.2 u value with argon filled double glazed units at 1.2 works well in my experience

 

[zappa]

Any help on the heating side of it from any experienced conservatory fitters ?

Ta

 

[Pinnacle69]

on a 4x3 or 4x4 ive found that a double rad 600mm high by about 1200mm long is adequate to keep conservatory pleasant i do however fit 4" of kingspan in the floor as well as 4" in the walls and with the aforementioned argon filled k glass sealed units. my customers use their conservatories all year round but ufh is quite expensive still and would you get the initial outlay back ? incidentally a 32mm polycarb roof typically has a u value of1.4-1.5 which is better than your celcius glass but are you happy with polycarb?

 

[zappa]

Don't want a ploycarb roof as too noisy when it lashes down? This type of roof and triple glazed glass is the best one for heat loss apparently?

Been told we can't extend the central heating system into the conserv as it's against Building regs....

 

[Richard C]

Quoted about 16k for it. UFH and extras are, well, extra!

That’s not too bad really; mines a slightly larger Edwardian at 22 sq/m & I paid £18k all in (2006) which included, electrics, UFH, tiling & plastering; although I ended up doing the gable end myself! Be interesting to hear how much difference the triple glazing makes, will it be up & running anytime soon?

If it helps, here’s the spec for mine; Argon filled “e” glass double glazing, 5 wall 50mm polycarbonate roof, 1m footings, 100mm Celotex floor insulation within a reinforced concrete slab, 100mm internal block walls with base render/plaster finish, 100mm cavity insulated ½ walls, independent electrical circuits, 4.2 Kw of electric under floor heating & a big fan in the roof.

I see your still pontificating about the roof; I have 5 wall, 50mm poly but frankly have no idea how efficient it is compared to DG or TG but there is the weight factor of a glass roof to consider! Poly is noisy in the rain though but, TBH, it’s rarely been an inconvenience in the 6 years we’ve had ours. Try & have opening doors on at least two faces so you can create a cross flow of air when it’s hot. Mine faces South & I have French doors is 2 walls & a single door in the third which keeps it nice & cool when the sun gets ridiculous (alas not often enough for me). Go for an opaque roof unless you particularly want to stargaze at night; clear polly/glass will bake you alive in summer & make glare uncomfortable; a friend of ours had clear glass fitted & ended up spending another 1.5k on retrofit roof blinds!

Best to stick to the regs. you might be interested in a similar thread here;
//www.diynot.com/forums/buildi...tory-without-the-internal-door-fitted.307315/

 

[Pinnacle69]

why not ask local building control round for a chat some councils just specify that conservatory heating should be controllable only conservatories are exempt from building regs on a number of provisos however you are already thinking of using energy efficient glass for the roof and windows so the frames and roof would both comply with regs if you were to treat it as an extension just a thought

 

[Richard C]

why not ask local building control round for a chat some councils just specify that conservatory heating should be controllable only conservatories are exempt from building regs on a number of provisos however you are already thinking of using energy efficient glass for the roof and windows so the frames and roof would both comply with regs if you were to treat it as an extension just a thought

You probably didnlt read the link I just posted;
//www.diynot.com/forums/buildi...hout-the-internal-door-fitted.307315/[/quote]

 

[masona]

Any help on the heating side of it from any experienced conservatory fitters ?

Ta

I'm in my conservatory all the year round including the winter with my cast iron stove, not sure about the running costs versus UFH, rads etc

Got a loads of wooden pallets round my way

I think the heat from the stove will take a lot beating but not sure of the running cost

 

[Richard C]

I'm in my conservatory all the year round including the winter with my cast iron stove

Lucky brastard; with hindsight, that’s probably the way I should have gone 6 years ago as at least all my wood is free if not fossil fuel! The 8Kw stove I have in my lounge would make mince meat of it & probably melt the bloody poly roof but it certainly wouldn’t be cold in there!

I think the heat from the stove will take a lot beating but not sure about the running costs versus UFH, rads etc Got a loads of wooden pallets round my way

I would certainly agree; our stove has reduced our annual fuel oil cost by 40% & it’s undoubtedly cheaper even if you have to buy wood at the moment. But there was a worrying bit of news surfacing a couple of days ago; it seems that so many folks are installing wood burners, it’s getting difficult for suppliers to meet demand & we all know where that will end up if you have to buy the bloody stuff!

So to close, what I would say is that stoves are too expensive, impracticable, filthy dirty, smelly, inefficient devices that pollute the atmosphere & kill the planet; not really worth the hassle.

 

[masona]

I'm in my conservatory all the year round including the winter with my cast iron stove

Lucky brastard; with hindsight, that’s probably the way I should have gone 6 years ago as at least all my wood is free if not fossil fuel!

You still can

I think the heat from the stove will take a lot beating but not sure about the running costs versus UFH, rads etc Got a loads of wooden pallets round my way

I would certainly agree; our stove has reduced our annual fuel oil cost by 40% & it’s undoubtedly cheaper even if you have to buy wood at the moment.

In the conservatory I think my 7Kw the stove will burns more coals/woods because of more glass area and also the biggest conservatory I can have before planning regs. Also the insulation won't be as good as indoors but I wouldn't be without it, just watching a real fire is cosy but probably still cheaper than UFH or rads, just the outlay of the stainless steel flue pipe etc

In my old smaller conservatory the stove didn't used much coals/woods