Keeping heat in a conservatory

[big-all]

where did you find out if conservatory is strong enough to handle the extra weight and what effect it will have on the manufacturers guarantee ??

have you removed any tie rods from the roof??

you need to check with your local council to find out there stance on the issue as regards to planning?

 

[andyrobertsanjbuilders]

No planning or building regs is needed as all you are doing is putting a ceiling into an exempt room.(as stated by approved building regulation officer)
If you want to take away the existing rear doors etc then that is a different matter all together.

 

[geraldthehamster]

No planning or building regs is needed as all you are doing is putting a ceiling into an exempt room.(as stated by approved building regulation officer)
If you want to take away the existing rear doors etc then that is a different matter all together.

I have to say I'd be astounded to hear a local authority Building Control Officer say that. To qualify as a conservatory, and therefore exempt from Building Regs, the roof has to be at least 75 per cent "translucent", ie it has to let the light through. I'd have thought that turning a transulcent roof into a non-translucent roof would make the whole structure liable to building regs. You can't really argue that it's still translucent from the outside - that would make about as much sense as putting tiles on top of it, and claiming that it's still translucent from the inside. I wouldn't want to try either with my BCO...

On an unrelated note, I have a cautionary tale concerning radiators in conservatories. We've had temperatures over the past week in the minus double figures. My young lady came home the other afternoon to find the heating off and water all over the conservatory floor. The radiator had frozen solid during the night, causing the outer casing to pop off a couple of spot welds, making holes. During the day, the ice had melted.... Fortunately the holes were towards the top of the radiator , so once the pressure had dropped, the rest of the system didn't drain itself as well.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Richard C]

On an unrelated note, I have a cautionary tale concerning radiators in conservatories. We've had temperatures over the past week in the minus double figures. My young lady came home the other afternoon to find the heating off and water all over the conservatory floor. The radiator had frozen solid during the night, causing the outer casing to pop off a couple of spot welds, making holes. During the day, the ice had melted.... Fortunately the holes were towards the top of the radiator , so once the pressure had dropped, the rest of the system didn't drain itself as well.

& is one of the reasons why a heating system in a conservatory must be independently controlled &, when incorporated into the main heating system, capable of being isolated from the main system. This is another of the requirements that exempts conservatories from Building Regs.

 

[geraldthehamster]

On an unrelated note, I have a cautionary tale concerning radiators in conservatories. We've had temperatures over the past week in the minus double figures. My young lady came home the other afternoon to find the heating off and water all over the conservatory floor. The radiator had frozen solid during the night, causing the outer casing to pop off a couple of spot welds, making holes. During the day, the ice had melted.... Fortunately the holes were towards the top of the radiator , so once the pressure had dropped, the rest of the system didn't drain itself as well.

& is one of the reasons why a heating system in a conservatory must be independently controlled &, when incorporated into the main heating system, capable of being isolated from the main system. This is another of the requirements that exempts conservatories from Building Regs.

I wish someone had told the person who built the conservatory. It wouldn't necessarily have prevented this, because I'd need to have anticipated the need to shut that leg of the system off, whereas I've been leaving the radiator on, to keep a warm buffer zone outside the French doors to the living room. Except, of course, when the whole system switches off over night.

Funny, because I isolated the mains water feed that I installed myself, through an unheated utility room, to an outside tap, and drained that leg at the start of the winter. I suppose it never occurred to me that a radiator might burst, as it had never happened in the three previous winters I've been here (which have been around 10 degrees warmer than early this week!).

Anyway, a cautionary tale, perhaps.

Cheers
Richard