Conservatories and heat

[southutsire]

We are looking around houses atm and saw a lovely one yesterday with a conservatory, but it was SO so hot in there you could barely breathe. The owners were honest about it and said basically you can't sit in there on a hot day. They had the double doors fully open and blinds drawn, but the candles on a table had melted right down without being lit...

Never having had a conservatory I have no idea how you would fix this - would you need to replace the whole thing? If so, with what type of glass or other material? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm just wondering how much money it would cost to make it a pleasant place to sit.

TIA

What was the roof made of? We had solar inserts put into our conservatory roof and it has made the most amazing difference. I can now read and internet away merrily in a pleasantly warm room that never, ever gets too hot. Before, it was so bright that I couldn't see. Really recommend.

Blinds were quoted at £1800, after some haggling we got the solar inserts installed for £550. Really worth it IMO.

Non-techical solution - well, not a solution but it would help - NOT on the south side of the house. Ours is (previous owners built it) and I've just nearly died of heat exhaustion in the time it took to evict a bumblebee. It's also cold in winter (though double-glazed, and with a radiator). Useful on about ten days a year when it's cool but sunny.

Not sure what the roof was made of but it was something corrugated . Yes it was on the south side of the house... Solar inserts sound promising. Will check those out. Thanks!

DontCallMeBaby, ours has the opposite problem - it's on the north side of the house and gets about an hour's sun a day on July afternoons.
We use it as an extra fridge in winter...

Ours just has the freezer in it - must work bloody hard to keep the temperature down when it's 40 degrees in summer. I have a friend whose rented house has a similar problem, but with no wall/doors between the rest of the houes and the conservatory, so the conservatory boils/freezes the whole of the rest of the house.

Araminta, what are solar inserts? Or should I just google?

Budget to replace the roof (if it is corrugated it could probably do with replacing anyway) and make sure you put vents in the new roof. My parents replaced a 1970's "sun lounge" which had all the problems you describe with a K-Glass conservatory with roof vents (not automatic) which is useable year-round.

We got our solar inserts here:

www.omegabuild.com/content/view/32/62/

You can fit them yourself or they will do it for you. Really, really excellent. We had a glass roof in a previous conservatory in our old house which had vents and blinds and this conservatory is sooooo much better.

These days you can get conservatories with the inserts pre-fitted....a much better idea than faffing with blinds IMO.

Thank you

Blinds are also insect traps.
Our conservatory is known as the "fly mortuary" and we dont even have blinds!

We also have foil inserts and it has made a massive difference, plus no maintenance!!! Blinds are a rip off and gather dust.

My mate actually boarded her roof with plasterboard as it was just too hot.