What's the crack with conservatories? What am I doing wrong?

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All my adult life I've wanted a conservatory, and at the grand old age of nearly 40 I finally have one.

But it's either freezing cold (can't open it when it's cold because it freezes the living room as though we have opened the door to the garden). And in when it's sunny (like right now) it's so hot I feel like I might die in there (but my god my washing dries quickly).

What am I doing wrong?
In the summer it's going to be an oven.

My grandparents have a fantastic conservatory. They have underfloor heating, and fancy sun shades. It’s usable year round although they only really use it for entertaining in the winter as it’s expensive to heat!

And a fan I think...

Nearly passing out at the notion of 27C being normal temperature 🥵
Then again, I'd be happiest in an igloo.

Underfloor heating helps I think for the winter anyway. We just stick an oil filled radiator in ours.

Ours is brilliant, it's probably the most used room in the house.
We have underfloor heating for the winter and open the bifold doors and windows if it's hot in summer.

Oh I keep thinking a conservatory will be my back up plan for extra space if there’s a house price crash and we can’t afford to upsize. Maybe not then

We have a lovely wooden one, off the kitchen. We have a small oil rad in there for the winter, and in summer, we just open the roof vents and windows so it doesn't get too hot. I wouldn't be without it. An extension in the same place would make the kitchen too dark.

We love sitting in there and just reading and looking at the garden!

Ours was shit until we put a proper roof on it, now it’s lush, but the roof cost more than the conservatory, admittedly 12 years later but still.

Ours has a proper heater in it for if we want to use it in winter and in summer we, you know, open the door...

Our house is south-north facing, so the heat in the conservatory counteracts the cool front rooms in summer nicely. In spring and autumn it's a nice temperature.

We don't use it a lot Nov-Jan, but it's a lovely part of the house Mar-Oct. First sign of Spring is the cat taking up residence in his conservatory chair!

Conservatory's are shite. Too hot or too cold, not very sound proof and expensive to get decent blinds for the windows. We have one. It quickly became the dumping ground for drying washing, tumble dryer, cat litter tray and extra freezer. So I'm glad we have one for that reason but as a tv room, study or extra bedroom it's useless.

They’re bloody awful things. I hate them. If we bought a house with one, demolishing it would be one of the first things we did.

We have one & it's fine. Our garden is north facing so only really gets the sun late afternoon so it's great to sit in the conservatory. It doesn't get too hot at all. It is cold in the winter but we just put the heater on with the doors closed for a bit & it quickly warms up.

I had always wanted one until we happened to rent a house which had one and that made me see what a bad idea they are. So hot and then so cold, never anything in between. We could only get to the garden by going through the thing and some days I just couldn't bear to walk through as it was so hot I felt like it might kill me. Fortunately we only rented that house for 6 months but it cured me of ever wanting a conservatory. Saved a ton of money right there.

My parents recently demolished their conservatory for the reasons you describe OP. Even after installing £££ blinds (which missed the point by blocking the views to the garden) it was still too hot in summer.

In its place they have built a beautiful garden room with 2 sets of french doors and 4 large velux windows.

It's stunning.

Full of light (and doesn't diminish the light in the adjoining room).

More importantly it's actually a usable space now, warm in winter and cool in summer with beautiful views of the garden.

Their only regret is they didn't do it years ago.

Ah, a garden room; now we're talking.

Yep we had one for years just was a great place to dry washing in summer and store things but yeah we never sat in it , the cat did .
Anyway we decided to extend and got rid but I admit I miss it only for the space to store stuff .
I agree no point in a conservatory depending on how your house is facing . My mum has a lovely cosy conservatory and even if it's sunny in the winter it's lovely and warm .

My parents had a ‘proper’ roof put on and now they use it soooo much more, it stays warmer in the winter and isn’t an oven in the summer

Underfloor heating and electric blinds for the roof and windows, plus good ventilation, we have an electric window in the roof and windows on each side, we use our conservatory all year round.

We had one already in a previous house, it was just a dumping place.
We got rid of it and had a huge glazed bay window with French door, put in its place.
It was part of the room, so warm and a lovely place to sit and look at the garden.

We inherited a conservatory when we moved in 6 years ago and it was as described above - freezing in winter and sickly boiling in summer. The choice was a one storey extension or a tiled roof with skylight on the existing conservatory, underfloor heating, good blinds and an electric fire. It was a third of the price of an extension and with two very small children, we opted for the tiled roof on conservatory! Couldn't stand the mess and time an extension would take. We use the conservatory every day. It's another reception room/playroom. I would have loved an extension but the timing wasn't right and it's worked out for us. But I know what everyone means about them being out of fashion!

By the way, what's the difference between a conservatory and a garden room?

One was already added to our house by a previous owner. It's great for heating the house Mar-Oct, although does stay closed off in the hottest weather. It shelters the south side of our lounge while still getting light from the north window.

It's a double size and the DCs favour it over the playroom which only gets the sun very late in the day and never warms up.

Long term, we would replace with a garden room, but it's quite good for the majority of the year. Underfloor heating would make the biggest difference.

You need to spend a bit more on glass for the roof, and all windows, doors and glass to be anti-glare/heat resistant etc.

We had exactly what you described when we first bought our house. The conservatory was useless - too hot/light in summer, too cold in winter. We had the old glass windows and the plastic roof panels replaced with modern glass and it's now perfectly useable all year around.

I hate them and particularly when a house already has quite a small garden and half of it is taken up with a plastic monstrosity. I'm in the demolition camp. Either extend properly or turn it into a terrace.

A garden room is a "proper" brick built room that typically has lots of glazing and garden views.

Unlike a conservatory that is constructed of plastic/timber framed glass and often (but not always has a glass roof).

The intent of both are the same (a half way house between inside/outside) and garden rooms are often styled like a conservatory wrt furniture/lots of plants etc but are much more functional through the year.