Insulating Conservatory Roof

[Aragorn84]

Hey folks,

We've moved into a new house which has a fairly large conservatory (~6m x 3m). We were hoping to use it as a dining area, but quickly discovered (having never had one before) the huge temperature swings makes it pretty unpleasant.

from a bit of reading, it seems insulating the roof can make a huge difference, but i'd like some input on the best way to do this. I see talk of rolls of "foil" which looks somewhat snakeoily (why would we need 300mm of rockwool, or many inches of kingspan if some thin foil roll can do the same job...)

I imagine the "proper" approach is to rip the existing roof off, and build a new one, properly, with insulation integrated into the design. However thats a big expense, and i'm hoping we can do something cheaper/more DIY friendly. Perhaps lining the inside with kingspan or rockwool or similar?

Can anyone give some advice on the best way to do this?

Thanks

 

[Alastairreid]

The foil cannot do the same job as kingspan, its the weight which is the deciding factor on what can be used.

 

[noseall]

Can anyone give some advice

There are many ways to improve the performance of a conservatory as long as you have either a bottomless pit of money or a high tolerance for disappointment. You could chuck thousands at it and only make it marginally better. Or you could cobble up some crudely fitted Celotex and end up with a smelly mould trap.
We bit the bullet and demolished ours down to the brickwork and re-built it as a heated extension that we can use as a dining area all year round.

 

[Aragorn84]

Yeah, i get that sentiment, and i think longer term that will be the plan. Unfortunately the rest of the house is further up the queue and it'll be a few years before we can get to it. However if we could do something in the interim that wasnt too crap but would make the room usable, it would really help.

Last month when it was routinely near 0c, the conservatory didnt get much above 10c with the heating on all day. Larger rad might help, but its still clearly pouring money into heating the outside. Clearly untenable as a dining room.