Changing the roof of my Conservatory.

[ian413]

I have a 2.4m by 4.8m basic conservatory.
It does however have a Polycarbonate panel roof. Its about 50mm thick but is so cold in the winter.I dont want to add a radiator inside the conservatory untill I have replaced the panels.
Is it possible just to swap the roof for a more efficent double glazed one? Or will there be weight issues?

 

[Richard C]

I have a 2.4m by 4.8m basic conservatory. It does however have a Polycarbonate panel roof. Its about 50mm thick but is so cold in the winter.

If you’ve already got a 50mm poly roof that’s about as thick as you can get as far as I know; we have 5 core 40mm which was the thickest we could get 3 years ago. Most folks miss the point of a conservatory; they are intended as a sun room, have glass on all sides bar one & so will always be bloody cold in winter! They have thermal insulation characteristics not much better than a greenhouse, usually with a budget to match! If you want/need an “all year” room you should consider either a garden room or an extension.

I dont want to add a radiator inside the conservatory untill I have replaced the panels.

To comply with Building Regulations, any heating system in a cons. must be independently controlled & capable of being isolated. Basically this means either a separate, electric radiator or heat pump but if you tee off the main system, you must fit isolator valves & a TRV on the radiator. A cons. must (should!) also have an external grade door fitted between it & the main residence.

Is it possible just to swap the roof for a more efficent double glazed one? Or will there be weight issues?

As you can imagine the extra weight of a double glazed glass roof would be considerable & it’s highly unlikely the design & construction of a conventional UPVC cons. will take the extra weight. Even if you did change to glass, I think you would still be disappointed with the results over what you currently have. Have you considered fitting roof blinds?

Others have fitted suspended, lightweight ceilings but, in all honesty, this rather defeats the point of having a cons. Whatever you do isn’t going to reduce the massive heat loss through all that glass & bring comfort levels the same as the main residence unless you pump loads of heat into it, which can be rather expensive these days; we close our down November through to March!

 

[^woody^]

Many alumminium rafter sections can take glass units, as can the frame sections supporting them

You just need to check what system they are and if they are suitable

The only issue may be whether the sections can take more than a 16mm unit, an if the spacing is suitable/practical for the glass units