Warm Up Your Sunroom For Winter
If you’re lucky enough to have a conservatory (or sunroom, greenhouse, etc) it’s quite likely that it’s your favorite room in the house come summer, providing a sun-filled space in which to relax and entertain. But when the weather takes a turn for the cold (especially if you live in a cooler climate), the conservatory is often abandoned completely, becoming a cold, uninviting room that can’t hold a candle to your hygge-friendly, warmer spaces. Reclaim your sunroom during the winter months with these quick tips:
Choose The Right Glazing
Glass can’t keep a room as warm as bricks, or wood and that’s just a fact. Glass is not the best insulator, and there’s no huge way to change that.
However, there are several different kinds of glass glazing available, which can help beef up your glass’s ability to insulate. However glass can also get expensive, so check the prices of different glazing and make sure you can fit it into your budget.
If you have an older conservatory and use it a lot, it might also be worth the expense of replacing older glass - especially if you’re considering a big home update.
Reduce Drafts
Make sure that all your windows and doors have fitted properly, with no gaps. If you’re replacing windows, choose good quality, such as Renewal by Andersen windows. Make sure they have proper draft-proofing too to keep the room warm.
If you’re going to have a new sun room built, make sure you have it fitted by a professional. Definitely don’t try and build it yourself or hire a general handyman, or you’ll end up with shoddy workmanship and bad joints that will let the warmth out and drafts in.
Think About Blinds, Drapes, And Throws
A simple, budget-friendly way to keep some heat in is to buy and install blinds or drapes, and use them to retain some heat in the conservatory. They’re also a great way to help reduce those drafts we were talking about. Open them up on sunny winter days to make the most of natural heat, and shut them up on colder days for added insulation.
Another bonus is to invest in a few throws and blankets to put over your furniture. These take the edge off colder fabrics like leather and give you something to curl up under when you’re using the conservatory on cold days.
Change Your Flooring
If you’ve got the cash and the time, installing some underfloor heating in your conservatory is a pretty luxurious addition that will definitely keep you nice and warm. However option for thicker flooring options with a little padding (such as some Pergo floorings for example) can make a huge difference and require less of an endeavor.
And yet, there’s an even more affordable, easy option. Unless you have an unfinished basement or crawl space, not much heat is really lost through a floor, but walking on a cold surface in your conservatory can definitely make you feel colder. Spare your cold feet and make the conservatory feel warm and cozy by laying a deep-pile carpet with some good underlay. Even easier, warm up tile or hardwood floors with a large, thick rug.
Insulate The Roof
The older your conservatory, the more likely it is your roof is made out of polycarbonate. Unfortunately, this kind of material isn’t very good at insulating a room and can be a big part of the reason why your conservatory gets cold.
It can be an expensive task, but replacing your existing roof with a new, insulated one can and will be well worth the time, money, and effort, and will keep the conservatory warm.
There are a few different options for sun room roofs that you could choose, including tiles and insulated glass. A new roof will be better insulated, helping you to reduce your heating bills and make the conservatory look smarter too. A more visually appealing conservatory looks good on your home and adds value to it too.
Install Electric Heating
Connecting your sunroom up to the existing central heating system you have in your home might seem like a smart idea, but it can actually be fraught with issues. To make this change, you might need to get permission, deal with tricky codes, and the job can expensive, time-consuming, and very difficult to do.
A better, more affordable option is installing electric radiators. Electric radiators convert all of the energy that they use into heat, which makes them very efficient. You can use them to keep the conservatory at a comfortable temperature without breaking the bank.
Use Your Heating Efficiently
Some people suggest that the best way to keep a sun room warm is to keep the heaters switched on all the time. In fact, this is wrong.
If you have a convector radiator, the heat rises vertically, meaning a lot of it will be lost through the glass instead of doing anything to warm the room. Instead, it’s more sensible and more effective to turn the heating on only as and when you are actually using the room. Turn the radiator on a few minutes before you want to use the conservatory, leave it on while you’re in there, and then turn it off again when you’re done. Any other way of heating the conservatory will just be a waste of energy, drive up your bills and give you a larger carbon footprint. Heat efficiently, for a warm room without sky-high bills.
