Insulating Inside a Conservatory Roof

[mail-veil]

I have seen a few videos on YouTube about insulating inside a conservatory roof and the process loooks very simple whether using a PIR thermal insulation board or a multi-layer foil material with varying efficiencies.

I understand the need to ensure there is an air-tight seal between the inside of the conservatory and the roof void but I heard mention on one video with a complany 'offering' to install insulation of a need to ventilate between the void and the outside world; when asked how did he do that he said that was his secret. Firstly, is that required and if so what might his 'secret be'?

I would be interested to hear from folk who have either installed their own or (don't be shy) paid for it to be done about experiences of benefits, especially in winter.

I am intending to DIY the job on my 4x5 Edwardian conservatory. At present I am torn betwen the ease of using a multifoil product on battens comapred to the lower cost and proabably greater effectiveness of PIR foam boards.

Thanks Mike

[Chris Hogg]

+1

It will be dark...

But isn't the roof of your conservatory already double glazed?

As you appear to realise, unless you seal the insulation around the edges _really_well_, condensation, followed by mould, will build up in the gap between the insulation and the glass. It becomes analogous to a double-glazed pane on which the seal has failed and it has gone misty. A solution to the latter problem is to drill small holes through the _outer_ pane to let the gap breathe to the outside, which is what the chap on the video you mention, seems to be saying. No suggestions as to how he does it though. Perhaps he drills through the framing.

[tabbypurr]

That last bit is easy: forget multifoils. They are poor insulators IRL.

NT

[Brian Gaff]

Well he obviously is OK with that, but what is the answer. I can remember in a house about five years ago I kept hearing this crackling noise, oh says the owner ignore it its the foil in the conservatory roof. This did not sound like a very well done job unless this was the 'ventilation' mentioned in the earlier post! Brian

[mail-veil]

Thank you for your concern Jim but you are presuming there is a window to an internal room, there isn't. In this particualar installation access is via a unglazed door and there are no internal windows where a previous owner of the house added this 'conservatory' as an art studio but because of big temperature changes rarely used it in winter.

There is no use of the house central heating, the outside world is effectively heated from underfloor electric heating that goes straight through the tri-wall roof and does precious little for the inside of the structure.

Mike

[Tricky Dicky]

Hi Mike

We had a double glazed conservatory roof replaced last Spring. The previous owners had it built and it was an integral addition on a bedroom in that t here was no divider between it and the room and it shared the heating. It d efinitely did not comply with current regs. Like you we found in the winter once the heating went into maintenance mode that room rapidly lost heat an d for sitting in purposes became uncomfortable. In Summer it became unbeara bly hot due to it facing South and impossible to use a computer screen not to mention getting the equivalent of snow blindness after any prolonged use .

Over the Summer the effect was instantaneous the room was much more comfort able and usable. Some of the benefit resulted from installing window blinds which were pointless with the previous roof. We could have had roof blinds for the previous roof but the quotes we got were astronomical.

So far this Winter I have been monitoring the temperatures today being the coldest day so far and the temperature difference has been at worst around

1deg.C between this room and the room with the room stat. So I think we are on a winner considering the amount of Windows remaining.

As far as loss of light I feel it is negligible the ceiling painted white h elps reflect light. I would say those areas of the room such as shaded corn ers previously are a smidge shadier. Regards ventilation they installed two additional vents through a framework on top of the window frames replacing some room vents that sat under the double glazed roof. The other venting w ere eaves vents which sit directly under the tiles and vent the space betwe en them and the breathable membrane. I did note they left gaps in the lath work to enable a through put of air.

Richard

[Handsome Jack]

Tricky Dicky posted

What did you replace it with?

[Tricky Dicky]

Hi Jack

It was replaced with a light weight tiled and insulated roof

Richard

[Andrew]

Since there is no thermal element separating conservatory from bedroom, this is notifiable work (*) and needed a building regs application.

You may some awkward questions to answer when the time comes to sell.

(*) Has been the case since Oct 2006.