glass roof... too hot

[cahu]

Can anyone help. I moved into a 1930's semi last year where the wow factor for me was an open plan living/dining/conservatory area.

However even on a mild Summer day it is stifling by late afternoon.

Apparantly blinds would not keep enough heat out and am not sure about reflective panels. Are they effective but do they look awful?

Have thought the only solution is putting a frame in and having doors to close the heat out of the sitting area.

Need something cost effective. What does anyone think.

Once I heard that somebody had put those light bamboo panels you see in cheap blinds on a leanto roof but it might be bit tricky on a dome, but if you can reach it and think of a way to fix them, provided the frame is wooden.... You could varnish them to make them durable... Or you could rig up panels of fabric to created a tented gazebo feeling but you'd need a wooden frame to stick the hooks in.

Images at
images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=tented+ceiling&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=huaiSqpF09n5Bv7qzOsP&sa =X&oi=imageresultgroup&ct=title&resnum=4

Ignore me if it's too weird

You can get reflective film which reflects at least 85% of the heat. We have a single glazzed sun room and its great!

You can get Pilkington glass with a low U rating that also cleans itself.

Another alternative is to have a part tile, part glass roof.

Automatic roof openers?

goldenpeach, i love that look but i dont think it would keep enough heat out. Ripeberry, have you got clear film and it really works? Thank you Heated, but i think that is out of my price range.

Can you install air conditioning for that room?

I could have written this OP...... the very thing that "sold' the house to me has been the bane of my life ever since !!

Ours has already got a reflective coating on it - the previous owners put it in and it cost them £.2k (they showed us the receipts). I have no idea what it was like before but it is like a bloody greenhouse now at the first sight of sun. We finally decided to get a decent air con unit put it which we resort to when having the windows/doors open doesn't work.

On the plus side, on cold sunny autumn/winter days where we would normally have the heating on, we don't need to in the main room.

It would be worth getting a couple of conservatory guys round to quote you for the various options - it might not be as expensive as you think.

Tilly, I was worried about paying out for reflective film in case it made no difference. Was the air con unit expensive? Thank you for all your suggestions.... depressing when I cant wait until Winter in the middle of June!

Our air con unit was £250 and it cost us about £50 to get it fitted in properly (with a hole in the external wall for the pipe etc.). It is quite expensive to run in terms of electricity, but a couple of hours in the middle of the day when its really warm seems to make a big difference.

Now we just need to find a solution for the noise on the roof when it rains

Thanks Tilly, that is what I need to do before next Summer. Was sceptical about the roof film being effective and also very expensive so definitely think this is the solution. Was dreading Summer this year and when I viewed the house last year before buying, I really did not give the glass roof a second thought in terms of being a problem, only how fab it looked! Big help, thanks.