Conservatory in summer, winter, best option!?

[FTC2019]

Hi,

We've had a conservatory built, it's around 2.8 x 4.4, we have windows to the front qith 2 top opening, sides are pvc panels which has insulated plasterboard, plastered and painted, roof is active blue self cleaning.

It's quite enjoyable when the weather is upto mid 20s (unbearable we had the heatwave at 30 degrees, but wasn't it everywhere?), but need some shade, and to prevent the direct sun on our new lvt flooring as this is causing buckling (lifting in places), I've had a quote from hillaries for blinds but these were nearly 3k, does anyone have experience with shade plus sails? Our roof it hip lean to.

The conservatory is joined with our living room, so all open, also is it going to be too cold in winter? The salesman said it would be a usable room all year round with an electric wall heater, but I guess they would say that.

Solid roof is not an option, I like having the natural light 😊

Thanks in advance!

This is a tale as old as time.

You know how when you buy a pear there is about a twenty minute window where is it is neither too hard or too soft? 🍐 It’s the same for a conservatory. Too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. It will be just right in the spring.

Can you install blinds yourself? They’re really easy to do and pretty cheap. Measure up, get them made. No need to go to an expensive company like Hillary’s.

Avoid the sail shades. A restaurant near my old work had them, and if you looked closely you could see dead flies balanced in them, so grim.

Conservatories are dreadful things, it's like avo roulette, there's a finite opportunity to use it comfortably.

See a well built conservatory should be usable all year round. We have ours 15 years and there have been very few days we haven't been able to use it. That said, it dies have normal height walls so windows are only half height and has a tinted roof as we are south facing and has both roof and window blinds, has 3 heaters (2 normal, 1 electric) and 2 fans, floors are tiled, we were told wood would not work well due temp differences.
For hot days I just open windows early and have the fans pulling air through, on freezing days it takes maybe half hour before it becomes warmed up.
I'm not sure an open plan conservatory would work as well, could you have folding doors to separate it off when you need to heat it?
A conservatory can be fab but it is something that needs to be fully kitted out with heaters, fans, blinds and that's not cheap.

We have dwarf wall to front, with windows and 2 top opening, sides pvc panels & plasterboarded - wanted it to look more like a room, and didn't want to look out at fence panels.

We're having sliding doors installed to separate the living room and conservatory, happy to spend on blinds, heaters etc just not sure of the best option, don't want to over spend on the wrong thing.

We are also south facing.

A fan would also be ideal but we don't have anywhere to fit it ☹

I have looked into blinds2go for the front blinds, can't find anywhere to measure and order my own roof blinds tho?

It's really lovely when it's warm-hot out, just very bright!

When the weather exceeded 30 it was very difficult to manage

I’m looking for cheap roof blinds too for the conservatory in the house we have moved into.
Can find lots of cheap, DIY blinds for the windows but struggling to find anything suitable for the e roof!

Urgh, im a bit of a clean freak, wouldn't a sail be easier to keep clean and fly free than blinds?

Yes we used them they were great

I was going to say an insulated plastered ceiling but then realised you said you like natural light. I do too but we had internal insulation and plastered ceiling and it's made it into a fully usable room year round. There is still plenty of light from the big windows. Can praise it highly enough and was less than £2k. Also a thick rug.for the floor makes a massive difference to the heat.

We’re ripping out a huge south facing conservatory early next year and cannot wait! Absolutely roasting from mid morning onwards on a sunny summers day and we’re in Scotland! We have two large central heating radiators that don’t take the edge off the cold in winter. Conservatories are just a nightmare and impossible to effectively control temperature.
Our conservatory was installed by previous owners and built to a high standard, temperature control is nothing to do with being well built, a huge amount of glass in a space will always have huge fluctuations in temperature based on weather.

We're also south facing and I found the brightness on a hot day worse than the heat, I could only sit in there with sunglasses on! The insulated/plastered ceiling has sorted that too.

We use our large conservatory all year round as our main reception room. It is only two wall of windows though and they have dwarf walls.

I dont have blinds but we do have a ceiling fan. I also have blackout curtains, which I pull first thing if its really hot, just till the sun has moved around the garden ( we are south west facing), the doors are always open to the outside in the hot weather too.

It is not quite open plan to the kitchen diner ( this was a tiny tiny kitchen and livingroom) but the french doors into the kitchen are never closed.

We have just a radiator along the back wall which keeps it warm enough in the winter, although we do have a electric fire that we turn on if one of us is up early than the heating kicking in.

Gosh, ours is 2 x half walls and the glass roof and it's perfect. However the people who installed it did a cowboy job on the drainage for an extra 6 inches (it's big anyway) and when we sort that which will be a £10k job, we will probably have a roof with two big skylights installed.

Do you currently have roof blinds?

Yes it's super bright! Did you have roof blinds and still found it bright?

I've got inserts in my upvc roof. It's helped a bit. Blinds made no difference and just got dusty.

I hardly use mine. Nice space though.

My dms electric roof blinds stay closed all year round, makes the conservatory much more comfortable, but they were an expensive investment from Thomas sanderson to never get used.

I've read Thomas Sanderson are quite expensive.

I've also read some blinds are honeycomb lined which offers insulation, is this true?

How does this work? Is the roof windows taken out? Did you have a company do it?

We took the hit and had a builder build a proper roof, think it cost about £5k about 10 years ago.

Best thing we ever did, usable all year round now.