Affordable ways to warm up your cold conservatory
22nd September 2022
Conservatories come in a huge range of sizes, shapes, colours and designs, and can add tremendous value to your home.
As well as being a great asset to your home’s worth, conservatories are also a valuable additional room to your home, opening up the possibilities of creating a tranquil garden room, a play den for the kids, or perhaps an adult-only dining space.
But for some home owners whose conservatories were built several years ago, they can be less than inviting in winter months, and with the current energy crisis, a source of worry over their tendency to allow heat to escape.
There are many different ways to improve heat loss in older, colder conservatories, including cheap ‘quick fix’ options, and more permanent solutions.
Here is our guide to warming up your cold conservatory with a range of options from quick and cheap to more permanent solutions:
Thick curtains
Thick curtains will act as a physical barrier between your windows and the rest of your room, creating a fabric ‘wall’ which will stop the flow of cold air into your room.
This will lower the overall room temperature, especially if the curtains have a thermal lining, which are not too expensive to buy ready-made from many high street stores.
With curtains, the thicker the better, and go for fabrics such as polyester and microfiber for best results.
Flooring
Cold, tiled flooring will not help create a warm and cosy environment in a room which is already struggling with temperature fluctuations.
One simple solution to this is adding a large rug, which will immediately act as a layer of floor insulation and prevent cold air from rising into the room.
It will also keep your feet warm!
Fix any leaks
Before coming up with ways to warm up your conservatory, it’s a good idea to locate any problem areas where draughts may be coming in.
Check to see if all external windows and doors can close properly. If there are gaps where cold air can creep in, your conservatory might be getting old land therefore osing its energy efficiency.
An immediate and low-cost solution is to plug the gaps with sealant. Unfortunately, this is not really a long-term solution and you’ll probably need to revamp the space eventually.
Open up the area to improve airflow and get rid of damp
Damp is a major cause of a low temperature in any room, not just a conservatory, and it is usually caused by a lack of ventilation.
If you have internal doors separating the conservatory from your rest of your home, opening them up regularly will improve ventilation in the conservatory, which in turn improves the airflow and helps to overcome the damp problem.
You could also invest in a dehumidifier, which will control the amount of moisture in the room.
A dehumidifier acts by reducing the risk of spores turning into mould, which is a health hazard and can aggravate a host of lung and breathing conditions such as asthma.
Invest in heating
There are now a wide range of conservatory heaters available that will raise the temperature and keep your living space feeling much warmer.
Customers are encouraged to research the best option for their home first, but as a conservatory specialist with years of installation experience, here is our guidance:
Radiators: With much of a conservatory’s heat being lost through the glass, it is important to have a permanent heat source to combat the cold in winter.
Radiators which are connected to your central heating system are usually considered the most efficient way to do this.
Electric radiators are a popular alternative because they’re fairly cheap to buy and can be installed without too much disruption, but be aware, they do cost more to run.
Portable Electric Heaters: A quick and convenient way to inject heat into a cold room, portable electric heaters are perfect for conservatories on cold winter mornings.
Even if you have another heating system in place, using a fan heater will give your room an instant boost until the main heat source kicks in. Infrared heaters conservatory heaters are also available which throw out heat that can be absorbed by the floor and furniture.
All of these will provide instant warmth to every part of a room, but they’re quite expensive to run. Oil-filled radiators take longer to heat up, but once they are they’ll continue to disperse heat for hours – even after they’re turned off.
Radiant heaters or electric panel heaters offer almost the same benefits, generating heat by passing electricity through a heating element. These two options are relatively cheap to buy, easy to use and sometimes cheaper to run too.
Underfloor heating: Without doubt, underfloor heating is one of the best cold conservatory solutions because it can easily be retro-fitted and doing so will guarantee to make a conservatory warm during winter.
It will usually be more energy efficient than most of the traditional methods mentioned above. It also tends to feel much warmer because the heat rises directly up from the floor, passing through you and your furniture.
Replace the roof
Conservatory roofs built more than 10 years ago will not be as energy efficient than roof using more modern technology.
Unfortunately, older conservatories are more likely to be too cold to use (particularly in winter) because they were fitted with either a polycarbonate roof or double-glazed glass roof that had very few insulating properties.
With advances in manufacturing and glazing technology, it is now easier to prevent heat from escaping though the roof and therefore reduce the amount you spend on your heating bills.
Replacing an existing old conservatory roof is quick and easy, and as long as the existing base and windows are stable, it can be done on any conservatory.
Our solid replacement conservatory roofs are popular and a great permanent solution to converting your conservatory into an all-year-round room.
Tiled conservatory roofs
We now offer intelligent glass roofs, or lightweight solid tiled roofs which prevent solar gain from the sun, and also protect against heat loss.
Many conservatory owners are upgrading their old conservatory roofs for new solid tiled roofs.
Old-style polycarbonate roofs unfortunately let heat out in the winter, and allow heat to penetrate through in the summer, making it uncomfortable.
Modern tiled conservatory roofs have a superb thermal performance and will make your living space much warmer. They’ll also keep the interior temperature cool in summer - so you can use the room all year round.
It may sound like a big project, but most of these transformations take less than a week to complete and, as our customers will testify, this is one of the most cost-effective ways to raise the temperature of a cold conservatory without replacing the whole structure.
Hybrid roofs
If your vision of a conservatory is a space that’s flooded with natural light, a Hybrid roof is the perfect solution for a cold conservatory. Using a combination of powder-coated aluminium vaulted roof panels and glass panels with enhanced insulation, this solid roof will let sunlight in but prevent heat from escaping.
Completely bespoke and able to replace any existing glass or polycarbonate roof, they can also be added to almost any conservatory – creating a comfortable temperature in all seasons in a matter of days.
For free and friendly advice from one of our experts, get in touch or call 0800 181 888 today!
