Warm conservatory roofs

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Rich
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Has anyone changed their normal polycarb roof for an insulated lightweight one? How much warmer does it make the room? Can it genuinely be used all year round? Also how much light do you lose in the room?
 
We took the polycarb. one off & put a double glazed glass one on about 5 - 6 yrs ago & that made quite a difference to the insulation (not to mention the noise) It saved quite a few quid a month in Winter. I think it cost around £3.5k
The fitters said there were small air-vents at the ridge...........I said sod them, get em siliconed. I don't want any draughts....or spiders!

The new lightweight `tile` jobs that are around now should be much better, as they are fully insulated. I don't think they were widely available when we did ours, or I'd have probably gone down that route.

Re the loss of light. It would actually have been beneficial for us as the cons. is South facing & FAR too hot in Summer & hard work with the glare. (we put a homemade material `sail` up which helps)

TBH I quite like the idea of a `proper` looking solid roof, as it's more like a proper room/extension. A few good LED roof/ceiling lights should sort any loss of light issues.
 
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We took the polycarb. one off & put a double glazed glass one on about 5 - 6 yrs ago & that made quite a difference to the insulation (not to mention the noise) It saved quite a few quid a month in Winter. I think it cost around £3.5k
The fitters said there were small air-vents at the ridge...........I said sod them, get em siliconed. I don't want any draughts....or spiders!

The new lightweight `tile` jobs that are around now should be much better, as they are fully insulated. I don't think they were widely available when we did ours, or I'd have probably gone down that route.

Re the loss of light. It would actually have been beneficial for us as the cons. is South facing & FAR too hot in Summer & hard work with the glare. (we put a homemade material `sail` up which helps)

TBH I quite like the idea of a `proper` looking solid roof, as it's more like a proper room/extension. A few good LED roof/ceiling lights should sort any loss of light issues.
Some interesting points there. Interesting to know that just being double glazed roof made a difference to bills etc. Ours doesn't have heating at present apart from a small fan greater to take the edge off the chill when the weather is inbetweeny. Under floor heating is going in if we change the roof. I think the light will be fine but my wife thinks otherwise because we have conifers up to the height of the top of conservatory windows about 2 metres away. Maybe a couple of velux rooflines would help.
 
Yep, the new glass made a big difference retaining heat, but would be nowhere near as good as a `proper` roof. Ours is about 3 mts X 5 mts & has 2 double rads in, a 5` and a 6`, but underfloor would be great. More economical & certainly less intrusive.

The Velux sound like a great idea. (y) Like everything though, I guess ..............£'s (n)
 
There is the interesting point that while the definition of a conservatory in terms of glass area has been removed from legislation, many councils still use the old definition (something like: at least 75% of both roof and walls to be non-opaque) so putting an opaque roof on would mean it would no longer be a conservatory and therefore subject to stricter the building regs required by an extension, which most conservatories won't comply with.

If you worry about such things, check with your local authority building control. If not, then as long as you are happy the structure will support it, go for it, they make a huge difference to the useability. My brother has one and it has transformed their conservatory into a room that can be used year round.
 
Ours is 2' of brick then plastic and glass (double glazed). 3m square and warm enough with the sliding door into the house open to be used year round. On VERY cold evenings we might need 1/2 an hour of fan heater to top it up but that was twice last winter.
 
Ours is 2' of brick then plastic and glass (double glazed). 3m square and warm enough with the sliding door into the house open to be used year round. On VERY cold evenings we might need 1/2 an hour of fan heater to top it up but that was twice last winter.
Is that with the warm roof? Out of interest, and if you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to convert?
Ours is 3m x 5.5m so quite large but not huge.
 
There is the interesting point that while the definition of a conservatory in terms of glass area has been removed from legislation, many councils still use the old definition (something like: at least 75% of both roof and walls to be non-opaque) so putting an opaque roof on would mean it would no longer be a conservatory and therefore subject to stricter the building regs required by an extension, which most conservatories won't comply with.

If you worry about such things, check with your local authority building control. If not, then as long as you are happy the structure will support it, go for it, they make a huge difference to the useability. My brother has one and it has transformed their conservatory into a room that can be used year round.
Yeah that did cross my mind, will speak to council and see what they say.
 
The roof is as supplied, double glazed glass. Tinted slightly blue to keep it cool in the heat of summer. Faces East so gets no direct sun after 3PM most of the year. Whole conservatory was 5 figures but worth every penny - we've pretty much lived in it since it was installed. IMO, one of the biggest benefits of glass over plastic is the noise when it's raining - we can hear it hammering down on next door's twinwalled plastic roof (we usually have the vent windows open a crack for cooling/ventilation) and they have to go indoors because they can't hear themselves think. Another big benefit is that we can sit here and watch the ISS etc. go over.
 
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