[Music] Heater for conservatory

[Dorset Seagull]

We currently use an electric oil heater in our conservatory but tend to only use the room in winter for the odd occasion as it's too cold or expensive to have on too long. We are looking for something that may enable us to use it more often so am after any recommendations. Obviously ideally something cost effective and preferably something that can be wall mounted. Also if wall mounted which is better vertical on a wall or horizontal under a window?

Any suggestions appreciated

 

[Rowdey]

Well gas is 1/3 cost of electric per KW, so if you can get a rad or two piped in, then ignoring initial install/purchase costs, that will be your cheapest way going forward..(Assume not ASHP, just a gas boiler..)

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Well gas is 1/3 cost of electric per KW, so if you can get a rad or two piped in, then ignoring initial install/purchase costs, that will be your cheapest way going forward..(Assume not ASHP, just a gas boiler..)

We have had a couple of plumbers suggest it wont be effective as we have small bore pipes

 

[Justice]

Well yes I can how much wall do you have under the window?

Fischer Dynamic ClayCore Radiators - Heating Without Touch

Dynamic Clay Core Radiators. Where you feel the warmth in the room, removing the need to touch your radiator to confirm its warmth

fischerfutureheat.com

I’ve installed these I can’t remember the exact model although the clay filled models are the nuts.
Around £300 for the 2kw model if I remember it was only last year .

 

[HeaviestTed]

We have had a couple of plumbers suggest it wont be effective as we have small bore pipes

Hopefully a heating engineer can answer but that sounds like nonsense to me? Surely the main thing is the size of the radiator? As long as hot water gets to it, it doesn’t matter too much how quickly?

Hopefully someone knows more than me and can correct me!

 

[raymondo]

We have had a couple of plumbers suggest it wont be effective as we have small bore pipes

I have small bore pipes throughout a 4 bed house, and a large radiator was added for our conservatory...and it's been good for ten years. Best to run off the manifold (as far as I was told ) or a creative pipe run.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Well yes I can how much wall do you have under the window?

Fischer Dynamic ClayCore Radiators - Heating Without Touch

Dynamic Clay Core Radiators. Where you feel the warmth in the room, removing the need to touch your radiator to confirm its warmth

fischerfutureheat.com

I’ve installed these I can’t remember the exact model although the clay filled models are the nuts.
Around £300 for the 2kw model if I remember it was only last year .

About 50cm high by 3m. There is a wall that would take an upright rad about 1.8m x 50cm

 

[Blue3]

conservatories are often purchased for the purpose of creating extra space which then fails to to deliver being to hot in the summer and to cold in winter and it’s important to remember that this is not an extension but a temporary lean two effectively it’s a greenhouse and if it was used as one a paraffin heater might be enough but that’s not what you need, as you and almost everyone who has a conservatory really needed was an extension to your home.

The problem obviously is that Conservatories need a measure of temperature control Sumer and winter, summer temperatures can be easily and cost effectively be improved with window blinds.
The real challenge is heating but let’s be honest in the winter it’s completely unrealistic to heat the space when most of the heat will be lost on the glass or plastic roof and using a radiator connected to your home heating system is a mad idea and I would just not use the space when that cold.

Having said that there are some options worth considering singly or in combination an insulated roof is worth investigating to try and keep some of that heat in or try one of those Chinese diesel space heaters often fitted to caravans or Infra red heaters that heat the person not the space and if all else fails a thick coat hat and gloves.

 

[Bodian]

The guy before us added a lean-to conservatory some 40 years ago - wood/glass frame, polycarbonate roof. He had a 'gap' made in the back wall (basically enough room for a person to go through - plastic bags in the cavity, no lintel). Anyway - he put a radiator from the house in there. No real issues, we just put a fan heater in there when eating in the winter - but pretty decent really.

I have since discovered that building regs say you can't put a radiator connected to the normal circuit in a conservatory (although that might be new).

About 14 years ago we did up the kitchen, and we were going to widen the gap to make a doorway / door - as conservatories apparently have to have a door between you & the main house. But the builder just suggested taking the window out and basically knocking it through to the kitchen. Again - no real issues, except in mid-winter, I guess we lose quite a bit of residual warmth from the kitchen out through the 'conservatory'.

But in effect, we now had an 'extension' - so the radiator was 'legal'.

It's all come to the end of its life now - so we're replacing the windows and putting on a 'warm roof' with a couple of skylights. Bit worried about losing some light - but it will almost certainly retain the warmth more, and stop it leaking out (and hopefully stop the rain leaking in through the flashing join). But because it's all lightweight stuff, the lads reckon we don't need to replace the low walls - despite them not having foundations.

So, we've sort of ended up with an extension that probably doesn't meet any regulations, or planning, or anything like that.

The point is though - throughout all of this, we have just had one decent sized radiator off the main house circuit, and we have had no problems at all, and our gas bill is pretty low.

 

[Blue3]

The guy before us added a lean-to conservatory some 40 years ago - wood/glass frame, polycarbonate roof. He had a 'gap' made in the back wall (basically enough room for a person to go through - plastic bags in the cavity, no lintel). Anyway - he put a radiator from the house in there. No real issues, we just put a fan heater in there when eating in the winter - but pretty decent really.

I have since discovered that building regs say you can't put a radiator connected to the normal circuit in a conservatory (although that might be new).

About 14 years ago we did up the kitchen, and we were going to widen the gap to make a doorway / door - as conservatories apparently have to have a door between you & the main house. But the builder just suggested taking the window out and basically knocking it through to the kitchen. Again - no real issues, except in mid-winter, I guess we lose quite a bit of residual warmth from the kitchen out through the 'conservatory'.

But in effect, we now had an 'extension' - so the radiator was 'legal'.

It's all come to the end of its life now - so we're replacing the windows and putting on a 'warm roof' with a couple of skylights. Bit worried about losing some light - but it will almost certainly retain the warmth more, and stop it leaking out (and hopefully stop the rain leaking in through the flashing join). But because it's all lightweight stuff, the lads reckon we don't need to replace the low walls - despite them not having foundations.

So, we've sort of ended up with an extension that probably doesn't meet any regulations, or planning, or anything like that.

The point is though - throughout all of this, we have just had one decent sized radiator off the main house circuit, and we have had no problems at all, and our gas bill is pretty low.

To me it’s akin to running heating pipes out into the garden but if it works for you then all power to your elbow

 

[Rowdey]

We have had a couple of plumbers suggest it wont be effective as we have small bore pipes

You can still carry over 3kw on 10m pipe for about 10meters, so whilst not perfect, it will still do it (Of course much better to pull from direct from manifold and not off another rad of course..)

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Having said that there are some options worth considering singly or in combination an insulated roof is worth investigating to try and keep some of that heat in or try one of those Chinese diesel space heaters often fitted to caravans or Infra red heaters that heat the person not the space and if all else fails a thick coat hat and gloves.

We had a proper roof put on a few years back and on days we put the oil heater on it does get more than hot enough but is expensive to leave on all the time if we used it more regularly

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I used to use a Dimplex M Series heater in my conservatory which doubles as my home office - a small but powerful heater for about £80 with temperature control.

Last year we had the old plastic roof replaced with a lightweight Ultraframe roof. Through the summer it stopped the room getting stupidly hot (lowered max temps by around 12C) and through the winter I only really used the heater first thing to warm the room and occasionally for 20 minutes or so on the coldest days.

 

[Justice]

About 50cm high by 3m. There is a wall that would take an upright rad about 1.8m x 50cm

Tricky one with that wall space available.

 

[Bodian]

Last year we had the old plastic roof replaced with a lightweight Ultraframe roof. Through the summer it stopped the room getting stupidly hot (lowered max temps by around 12C) and through the winter I only really used the heater first thing to warm the room and occasionally for 20 minutes or so on the coldest days.

This is very reassuring. It's what we're having done next month.

Although of course being in Cumbria, the 'stupidly hot in summer' bit never actually happened.....