Glass conservatory style roof on kitchen?

[R D S]

Our kitchen sticks out of the back of the left side of the house and is quite small. As was our neighbour's.

outside __________ | | _____ | | | | gap | | | |_____| | | | | | | | our house neighbour

The neighbours have had an pretty large extension so their kitchen spans the whole of the boundary, so now there is a wall to the right of our house.

We've been thinking of having a conservatory built in the gap between, but now thinking of knocking the kitchen out and extending across in a similar way they have, albeit smaller.

So we are now wondering whether to build the lot in a conservatory style and have a glass roof.

Any opinions on this, anyone done similar?

Or any opinions generally, thanks.

[tabbypurr]

How would you make the heat loss reasonable, triple glazing?

NT

[R D S]

The place is a howling draughty mess at the moment, it could only get better.

[spuorgelgoog]

If you want a 'conservatory' you will have to keep exterior style doors between it and the rest of the house.

If you want it to be part of the house (and a habitable room) it will have to comply with Building Regs.

Lantern lights are quite in vogue at the moment if you want (or need for thermal compliance) a solid roof but want to look at the sky.

Owain

[Tricky Dicky]

The heat loss through a glazed roof will be horrendous even if double glaze d if our old conservatory roof was anything to go by. We replaced it with a lightweight insulated roof and so far through the coldest parts of winter the temperature has stayed about 1C at most below the temperature of the lo unge where the thermostat is situated this is despite a considerable amount of glazing remaining. If you feel you need some light coming through the r oof then I would limit it to smaller roof lights.

Richard

[tabbypurr]

I have a feeling that means you have no idea, it will be boiling in summer & freeze in winter.

NT

[Brian Gaff]

Not only that, but it can be very hot in a kitchen in summer and a glass roof? Well.

Have you asked the neighbours? Have they done this?

Also if you are on a slope often building out with a level floor as its part of the same room can make the door to the outside have several steps as well. Brian

[Tim Watts]

You can get to 0.6W/mK with this:

file:///home/tw/Downloads/Pilkington_energiKare_Triple_and_Pilkington_Insulight_Triple_High_WER_Scores.pdf

That's worse than the recommended for roofs. However, it equates, on a

15m2 room, to a loss of 189W if heated to 21C inside and freezing outside.

The recommended value is 0.15W/mK so the loss there would be: 47W

So a triple glazed glass roof is losing an extra 142W which is about 2p per hour at 13p/kWhr electrical heating - ie bugger all.

It also fails to take into account solar gain (a positive) in winter.

I would say: talk to the BCO. They may allow it, or may allow it with compensatory improvements elsewhere in the building.

[Tim Watts]

Sorry - that was Chrome's fault...

This should get the same PDF:

[tabbypurr]

lazed if our old conservatory roof was anything to go by. We replaced it wi th a lightweight insulated roof and so far through the coldest parts of win ter the temperature has stayed about 1C at most below the temperature of th e lounge where the thermostat is situated this is despite a considerable am ount of glazing remaining. If you feel you need some light coming through t he roof then I would limit it to smaller roof lights.

ulight_Triple_High_WER_Scores.pdf

2p an hour for half the year is an extra £87.60 per year, £876 pe r decade. Fit the insulation.

but not in summer :)

Quadruple glazing can be cheaper than triple if you can find a matching pai r of chucked out dg units.

NT

[Chris Hogg]

It has been done. You don't have to do the whole roof. Openable fanlights are useful to let out the excess heat. Many examples here.

and

[David]

If you have a glass roof you will need blinds in the summer. Assuming that you can meet the thermal loss requirements of Building Regs.

We built out with a solid roof with three opening roof lights then had the entire garden end as bifold doors. This gives plenty of light and much better heat insulation. The only major thing that I would have done differently would have been to fit powered openers for the roof lights.

All very well to say - "How much? I can do that with a pole!" but after a while it gets to be a pain, and automatic closing when it rains is a big bonus.

Channelling out all that new plaster to run in extra wires isn't that attractive, and the power units would have to fit the existing roof lights because their integration into the metal roof is a work of art which would be expensive to repeat.

Anyway, best of luck.

Cheers

Dave R

[Jeff Layman]

You're not far off (isn't what you've stated the definition of a conservatory?!).

We have a 5.5 x 4.5 m conservatory, double-glazed sides and roof; the roof has heat-reflective glass. It's on the north side of our bungalow, which means that from about mid-November to mid-January is the only time the sun is not on it. In winter it is cold. Even 1.8kW of underfloor heating will barely keep it above 10 deg C when the temp outside falls below zero.

In summer, it is just the opposite. Full sun nearly all day. Even with automatic vents, and all the side windows' fanlights open, it is too hot to stay in there. Blinds help, but only on less-sunny days. Even if blinds reflect the IR back, some heat will remain trapped under the glass. The only way to keep it comfortably cool would be with blinds and air conditioning (maybe a real use at last for solar panels? Highest output to drive a 3 kW a/c unit exactly when it's needed!).

But really if it's hot enough to need all that expensive cooling, why not just sit outside under a parasol in the cool breeze of a gentle wind or a fan? Trouble is, you don't have that option with a kitchen if you need to prepare food or cook in it.

[newshound]

FWIW my daughter and SIL have just had a conventional single story extension built to enlarge the original kitchen/diner and removed what was once a good quality extension for exactly the same reason, that it wasn't really useable either in hot or in cold weather in spite of being double glazed, properly heated, nice blinds, opening vents etc. New kitchen part has pitched roof with three electrically operated velux type windows to provide light and ventilation. Whole arrangement is a great improvement.

Off at a tangent, she advertised the conservatory on ebay as buyer collect, originally had a buyer for a few hundred pounds but they dropped out. Second buyer only paid £5 but it saved them £350 in disposal costs.