Boiler for Conservatory

slookie

We built our house 1 and 1/2 years ago and one problem is that our conservatory is really cold in the winter time. There is one big window, 2 small ones and big double doors in it (one into kitchen and one outside). there are 2 rads in the room and it is very well insulated, but I suppose the high ceiling doesn't help - at a guess 16ft high. The room is roughly 17ft x 12ft. One of our neighbours had the same problem so he put in a small stove and made a big improvement. Does it defeat the purpose of a conservatory to put a stove in...though it would be nice to relax in there in winer time. Has anyone done this, and if so what size, brand ets stove was it? Herself rang a crowd there and they said we'd need a 7 or 8 kw one. Any help appreciated.

items

Conservatory's are a bugger to heat, all walls tend to be external. Ceilings are high with no roof space for insulation, lots of glass so all in all little to no retention of heat. Summer time comes and sometimes its to hot to stay inside them. I've seen a few stoves fitted, seems to be the done thing, you'll still loose heat, no way around it, by adding a stove all your doing is adding more heat so overall costs go up.

The size of stove depends on size of room. Measure out room best you can including construction of room, quick online search should give you details about calculating heat loss / heat requirement.

You could bring along room detail and measurements to stove stockist, have them work it out for you, most have the ability.

If your fitting solid fuel stove you'll have to look into piping out a flue, straight up normally. Gas stoves avail also, ones with cat converter require no flue, avail in Nat Gas and almost but not 100% sure in LPG also (bottle). Wood pellet burners are another option, regular maintenance required.

You could replace rads with Myson fan convector type rads, with the fan convection is boosted allowing better convection to heat rooms with high ceilings. Once the room is not massive, replacing rads with fan convectors could do the trick. Fan in rad will make noise, nothing to bad but noticeable enough.

kaizer13

I have worked in hundreds of conservatories, installing radiators, electric heaters, skirting heaters, ceiling fans etc. A conservatory is basically a posh greenhouse and should never be expected to equal the thermal performance of the house to which it is attached. However, to stand a chance of getting full Winter time use of the structure and to get value for the money spent on heating fuel costs, there is only one practical solution .... underfloor heating. There are wet systems and there are electric systems. A great deal of analysis has to go into the selection process, deciding just who by, how and when will the conservatory be used. There is no simple straight forward answer but I would warn that diving straight in for the stove option is not necessarily a good idea. A stove has to have an air supply, which means having an opening somewhere that will allow the cold air to come into the room and most of the heat will go straight up. With a high ceiling especially, you need the warmth to gently flow around every occupant of the room before it finally gets lost to the outside through the roof structure. Take lots of advice and keep your money in your wallet until you have completed your research.

Red Alert

A better option might be a balanced-flue gas heater like the Rinnai or Warmplan units, they can be pricey though.