Conservatory heating, Under Floor or Radiator?

I'm putting a conservatory on the back of the house and want to know the best way to heat it.

I can put a radiator in fairly easily but have been advised to go for wet underfloor heating as it's more efficient and it heats the whole area.

There seems to be 2 types of systems around, one with a manifold and seperate pump which also send a control signal to the boiler and the other which has a temperature sensitive device in the return line which regulates the temp but there's no electrical connections so it relies on the boiler being controlled by another device.

Anyone recommend which one to go for. The obvious benefits of the second system are that although it doesn't have the control, it's a damn site easier to fit!

i would go for both, but only if your boilder can handle the extra capacity.

however personal choice would be radiator and eletric under floor heating. don`t put the cables in /under the screed or concrete, use a thermal matting, and lay the cabling on this, then put your flooring on top, otherwise you spend ages heating up the scree / concrete before any heat really gets into the room,

plus eltric under floor heating will not flood your house and can be taken up easily.

If you can put in a central heating radiator easily, I would go for that, with a thermostatic rad valve, so you can operate it independently from the house. If you have an all glass/plastic roof you will never get it up to sitting room temperature in the winter. Volume/heat loss calculation would warrant an enormous radiator which would look ugly.

I would then choose slim, dwarf wall electric, thermostatically controlled dimplex wall heaters with time clock, for extra umph.

Others will say that the building regs does not allow central heating in conservatories, due to the uninsulated nature/ u-value of the structure and they will elaborate on this, as I am unsure.

Under floor heating is great but it is not instant, it does take a long time to be effective and quite expensive to run, let alone install.

Thanks chaps.

I think I'll build the thing then add the heating when I know how cold it gets as it's fairly easy to do.

Cheers

Lumpy

To retro-fit UFH you'd have to rip up the whole floor, and substrate!

See Polyplumb site for some UFH stuff.

All depends what you want to use the space for in the winter.

I had the same dilemma with a new conservatory.

Initially was going to use electric underfloor heating the type laid in the concrete, but someone who had it and they said it was slow to heat up, taking hours not minutes.

Next I considered adding a radiator from the central heating, in fact I got as far as having the pipes run, but I don't use the conservatory in the dark winter nights so don't really need to heat it permanently. In the late summer/autumn whilst it's still light until 7:00pm it can get a bit chilly in the conservatory so some extra heat there would be nice but as the weather's still fairly warm my central heating isn't on so a radiator connected to the central heating would be of no use.

In the winter if I turned on the radiator in an evening, it probably wouldn't be on much as the main central heating thermostat is in the house which would be warm by the evening and so all of the rads would probably be off.

I considered aircon, the type with a heatpump, but there wasn't anywhere really suitable for the outside unit and it's expensive to install.

In the end I went for a wall mounted 3kw electric convector with a fan boost for a fast heat up. A built in timer and thermostat give complete control separate from the main house. (I understand that this is essential for part L of the building regs as conservatories don't meet with the thermal properties of a "proper" room)

This is perfect for us, as we only heat the conservatory when it's needed and when we do it heats up fast. I don't use it much in the winter when it's dark so it's not too expensive to run. (If its sunny in the winter during the day that heats it enough anyway)

The deciding factors really depend on how much and when you want to use the conservatory and how much it will cost to install & run the heating.

Hope this helps.

Ive put a myson convector radiator in mine-does the job great!

I would go to Argos and buy a thermostatically controlled electric oil filled rad which will cost you all of £40

A radiator will never get it warm enough

Heat and cool aircon is great though if you have the money to install as you get the best of both worlds and its actually quiet efficient in heating mode as you get more heat than the power you put in
ie 1kw of input will give you more than 3kw of heat

Stan

We had the same dilemma in our conservatory which had an old Dimplex oil filled rad in it. It took forever to heat up and couldn't maintain any heat in the room. I looked at installing a radiator off the main system but it meant disturbing a lot of carpets and flooring. In the end we opted for a fan assisted DeLonghi electric heater (about £35 from Comet). Unless you are going to use the room throughout the winter I would go down the 'plug in' route. It heats the room in about 10 mins flat and works a treat.

This is the dilema I have, it's used enough during the winter to need heating. It has the dining table in and my son has his xbox in there, I prefer him not to be locked away in his bedroom where I can't see him.

I currently have a small electric panel type heater in there, as installed by previous owners.

I'm concerned about putting in a radiator, as though gas is cheaper than electric, the heating won't be on long enough for it to heat the conservatory fully or for long enough. I have a feeling that I'll just end up topping it up with an electric heater of some sort anyway. Unless I put it on it's own control/thermostat but this could put too much load on the boiler.

Putting in underfloor heating is out of the equation as it would mean lifting the existing flooring and no doubt digging up the concrete floor to fit the stuff.

It doesn't seem there's really an ideal solution.

MIH said:

It doesn't seem there's really an ideal solution.

Click to expand...

You’ve posted a 4 year old thread please check the last post date . Building Regulations regarding heating in conservatories also changed in October 2010 & it is no longer permitted to extend the main property heating system into a conservatory, it has to be completely independent or it won't comply.

If you have questions of your own regarding cons heating, start your own thread rather than posting on someone else’s, especially one that’s over 4 years old. The ideal solution is not to use your cons in winter; they are about as heat efficient as the average garden shed & aren’t suitable for year round use unless you want to spend a fortune on heating bills.

Oops, sorry, I've just realised what I've done and clicked reply on the wrong thread, that'll teach me to have multiple windows open in my browser!