Options For Heating Your Conservatory

!±8± Options For Heating Your Conservatory

Conservatory heating is a necessary expense if you wish to use your conservatory in the winter months or Autumn/Spring on overcast days or in the evenings. The are many different ways to heat your conservatory and we will look at some of them here, investigating the relative pro's and con's of each method including purchase prices, installation costs and running costs where possible. Below is a summary of some of the methods of heating your conservatory along with approximate costings on the assumption of a 10m2 area. Assumes 2kW heating requirement and average electricity tariff of 12p. Running cost is when on and not annual average.

Conservatory Heating Method

Fan heater

Cost - £10 Running costs - 24p
Oil Filled Radiator

Cost - £30 Running cost - 24p
Electric panel heater

Cost - £150 Running Cost - 24p
Night storage heater - economy 7

Cost - £175 Running Cost - 9p
Connect to existing home central heating system

Cost - £250 Running Cost - 9p
Split unit air conditioning system as heater

Cost - £500+ Running Cost - 24p
Air source heat pump + under tile heating

Cost - £2150 Running Cost - 6p
Reasons to heat your conservatory?

Maybe you use your conservatory as a breakfast room in which case it needs to be warm in morning all year round. If you conservatory is used throughout the day during Winter it is a good idea to have a heating solution that either has a very constant temperature or can be topped up during the day if required. Perhaps you keep sub-tropical or tropical plants in it which could not withstand the freezing temperatures we get in the winter here. Then it must not drop below a certain temperature. Types of heater fall in to 2 main categories

Electric conservatory heating Pro's

No ventilation needed Quickly adjust the temperature Easy to adjust Clean
Con's

Running costs can be high
Gas conservatory heating Pro's

Low running costs
Con's

Ventilation required Below are some specific ways of heating your conservatory

Domestic central heating system

You could simply connect a new radiator to an existing central heating system. Check with your conservatory supplier or local building officers to make sure this is allowed. If you have an efficient boiler already then this method will have a very low running cost. It is a requirement that the radiator you place in the conservatory has its own thermostatic control and can be turned off. For optimum heat circulation it is suggested to install the radiator near the dwarf wall though this is not always possible nor indeed convenient.

Pro's

Cheap to run - estimated 9p per hour for 2kW of heating assuming high efficiency boiler and heat transfer system in house.
Con's

Cost of installation ~ £250 including labour for a single radiators Heating during the night Many people turn their central heating off during the night and so this will not help frost protect and plants you have in there.
Control of temperature may be an issue depending on how the thermostatic control of heat in the rest of the house is set-up. Your house and conservatory will heat up and cool down at different rates.
Fan heater

Go out to Argos or whoever and buy a fan heater

Pro's

Cost ~ £10-20 for a 2kW unit Portable
Con's

Noisy Air flow can be irritating High running costs ~ 24p per hour for 2kW of heating.
Electric panel heater

Buy and install a simple low profile electric panel heater.

Pro's

Easy to install- plug it in Fairly low cost ~ £150 Plenty of heat available - up to 3kW per unit Quick to heat up Slim line
Con's

Running costs can be high ~ 24p per hour for 2kW of heating.
Oil filled radiator

These are also available from 'most good retailers'

Pro's

Very cheap ~ £30 for 2kW unit
Cons

Not slim line Heavy to move High running costs ~ 24p per hour for 2kW of heating.

Night storage heater

Although not as vogue as they once were they are still available widely and now they are much more slim line than the huge brick filled blocks they used to be.

Pro's

Can operate of economy 7 ~ 9p per hour for 2kW of heating during the night. Fairly low cost ~ £175 for 2kW unit
Con's

Can be expensive to install Not easy to regulate Expensive to 'boost' ~ 24p per hour for 2kW of heating.
Tubular Heating

This is commonly used in outside rooms, sheds and greenhouses where the desire is to prevent the room from going below zero which could damage plants, pipes and other items.

Pro's

Frost protection kits available. Designed to operate in damper conditions e.g. glass house or garden shed. Splash proof if conservatory used for lots of plants that need watering. Cost ~ £20-40 including frost thermostat
Con's

Low power only really usable for frost protection
Free standing gas fire

A calor gas heater is an example but an be either butane or propane depending on design.

Pro's

No installation costs Portable Cost ~ £125
Con's

Can be bulky Heavy to move Sometimes smell Cause condensation
Heat Pump

Heat pumps come in two varieties air source and ground source. This defines where they extract the heat from. Heat pumps are commonly used as the source for a under floor heating system due to the low temperature water they produce. Air source heat pumps also use systems with a fan on the interior heat exchanger to blow warm air in. They operate using the refrigeration cycle. The inside of a fridge is cold and the back heat exchanger is warm. In a heat pump the outside world is cooled down and the heat is pumped into the inside. The advantage is that typically for every 1 unit of electricity 4 units of heat can be brought inside.

Pro's

Can also be used as a cooling means Can be wall or floor mounted. Low running costs ~ 6p per hour for 2kW of heating assuming 4 to 1 heat gain.
Con's

Generally expensive
Ground source heat pump Pro's

Able to better extract heat in very cold weather from the environment than air source
Con's

Almost certainly too expensive for conservatory cooling unless considered as part of a larger change in central heating system or in a new build construction.
Air source heat pump Pro's

Not as expensive as ground source ~ £1500
Con's

Still expensive
Conservatory under floor heating

Pipes are run either underneath the tiles or within the floor screed. These pipes carry a working fluid that can be heated thus heating the floor surface.

Pro's

Comfortable way of heating a room Invisible Doesn't take up any space Can be powered off central heating, heat pump, gas or electric source Low running cost even with electric as usually find ambient temperature can be lower and still comfortable.
Con's

Installation cost ~ £350 for install in 10m2 Cost ~ £250-300 for 10m2 kit under tile Cost ~ £200-250 for 10m2 kit in screed
Air conditioning

Either a portable unit with vent to outside world or a split system professionally installed and wall mounted. Air conditioning units are usually selected on their cooling capacity rather than their heating capabilities. Therefore running costs are tricky to calculate.

Pro's

Obviously is good for cooling as well
Con's

Noise Cost ~ £500+ for split system Cost ~ £250+ for portable system
How much heating do I need?

The amount of heating required depends on

Size of conservatory Insulation properties of the glass/frame - U value Required temperature differential - temperature inside to outside To complicate matters the shape of the conservatory and weather conditions such a wind speed will effect the heat loss but they are not considered here.

Heat loss is modelled using the following equation

Heating required (watts) equals U value * Area * temperature difference

Area is the glass area of the conservatory plus 1/3rd of the area of the connecting wall. It gets more complicated if the conservatory is constructed using different glazing options (e.g. roof) or is angled. So for a conservatory with a 10m2 floor area and 2.4m high walls and slightly sloping roof one would have an area of 37.3m2.

Single glazing has a U value of around 5 or more. Old style double glazing is about 3. Newer low-e coatings are closer to 2 with triple glazed argon filled (read expensive) units as low as 0.4!

Assuming you wish to have a minimum temperature of 18C in the daytime (with say an outside temperature of zero) we can then calculate the required best case heating requirement at about 2kW. With low-e glass it would be about 1.3kW.

Note: A dealer of conservatories or heating unit will be able to input more realistic figures but this is just ballpark. It allows us to compare different methods of heating the conservatory for price on a very typical size conservatory.

It's clear that a good way of heating your conservatory is to stop any heat within the structure escaping in the first place. However, extremely high performance glass (such as tripled glazed argon filled low-e variety) can be very expensive and depending on your conservatory usage you may never recover the investment in reduced heating bills.

Conservatory Heating Conclusions

There are a few different ways of heating your conservatory. Typically the lower upfront cost the higher the running cost. Ultimately its a hard call as to how much to spend on well insulated glass and how much to spend on efficient heating systems. Hopefully this breakdown of methods and costings has given you the information to make a better informed decision.

Options For Heating Your Conservatory

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Fascia and Soffits, What Does it Involve?

!±8± Fascia and Soffits, What Does it Involve?

Your house is the biggest investment you are ever likely to make so it seems obvious that you want to keep it a state of good repair. After all ,if it's falling down, you probably wouldn't sell it or if you did you would not get its true value.

Next time your in your garden take a look up to your roofline, that's the part that has the gutter attached to it, is it looking past its best, is the gutter sagging or has it come away from itself?, have you noticed birds nesting in the roof, these are just some of the things that could mean your roofline needs to be looked at before it gets any worse.

Birds nesting in between the rafters cause the truss ends to rot, this is from the birds bringing wet grass back to build their nests, the body heat of the birds as they nest and also from rainwater getting behind the fascia boards (the birds make holes in the felt). Rotten wood needs to be removed, it will not get any better.

Some people will opt to have the existing wood covered over, this is fine as long as the original wood is in good condition ie. absolutely no rot whatsoever, however if there is the smallest amount of rot etc. it must be removed no questions. There really is very little difference in price for having full replacement maybe a couple of hundred pounds.

For full removal the first row of tiles should be removed, approx 6 inches of roofing felt should be cut away. This allows the fitters access to the rear of the fascia board which in turn makes it easier to remove. Once the gutter and fascia has been removed, the soffit can be inspected, in most cases the soffit could well be asbestos in which case it can be left in place, it does not rot and is expensive to dispose of, if the soffit is wood it can be removed if needed, some fitters leave the existing wooden soffit in place and cover over it with the new soffit, this is purely down to the fitter and does not compromise the work. sprockets should now be fitted to the truss ends, these are basically wooden batons screwed in to the truss ends that the new nails that hold the fascia on are nailed into, this is to stop any new nails being knocked into existing nail holes, you do not get a solid hold and the new fascia board may move a little.

Once the fascia board has been attached, it is time for the gutter to be fitted. This comes in either round, square or ogee, round or square are generally fitted - ogee is quite expensive, the gutter normally comes in 3 different colours, Black, White or Brown, there should be no difference in the price for colours or style.

Now the gutter has been fitted it is time for the venting system and bird combs (to stop birds re-nesting), this basically sits on top of the fascia board and slips under the existing felt, this ensures that any rainwater that gets between the tiles actually runs down the felt into the gutter and does not fall behind the fascia, the venting system allows air to circulate the loft space and stops condensation forming. Please note: depending on the type of tiles you have birds combs may not be needed.

It now just leaves the downpipes to be fitted, if your home has gables with fascia and soffit, they be replaced in much the same way as the fascia and soffit (with gutter) although there will not be any need to remove tiles, felt etc.

All of this can be carried out for a relatively small amount of money, an average sized house with 20 metres of fascia, soffit and gutter and 2 gables with 10 metres of fascia and soffit should not come to anymore that £1500.

If you have a coloured fascia or a woodgrain effect be prepared to pay almost double the price for white, unfortunately coloured and woodgrain are extremely expensive so beware.

Any decent fitting company should remove all rubbish from you property, they should leave your property clean and tidy.

Fascia and Soffits, What Does it Involve?

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