What to Consider when Heating a Sun Room

Sun rooms, garden rooms and conservatories all make wonderful additions to a home and really come into their own during the Summer months. To ensure these spaces stay usable for as much of the year as possible, it's wise to make sure the correct heating is installed. Nick Duggan, MD, at The Radiator Centre explains what to consider when planning how to heat these rooms which, with their large areas of glass, can sometimes be a challenge.

Available Wall Space

Whether a sun room, garden room or conservatory, all of these rooms by their nature are designed using a lot of glass which, whilst fantastic for letting in lots of lovely natural light, does mean wall space on which to put radiators can sometimes be lacking. There are solutions though as Nick explains, "Vertical radiators can be a good option for sun rooms as they make it possible to use what would of previously been redundant space e.g shorter than average walls, behind doors, narrow spaces between bi-folds or patio doors and walls etc. Technological advances have resulted in radiators which are smaller, yet far better at producing heat. There are plenty of vertical radiator options that will maximise the limited amount of wall available and still provide sufficient amounts of warmth".

"We also recognise that in some circumstances, where there are significant amounts of glass, it is not possible to have radiators at all and in these circumstances trench heating installed in the floor is often a viable alternative," continues Nick. "Trench heating is perfect for use with glass bi-fold doors or large expanses of glass as the heat coming up from the trench acts as a kind of 'air curtain'. This minimises heat loss and restricts draughts, as well as preventing window condensation."

Room Size

"As with any room of the home, the key priority is making sure that you have enough heat coming into the sun room when you need it. You can estimate how much heat you need by entering some information into a simple Heat Calculator online.  This is a basic calculation based on room dimensions and other factors, such as the amount of glazing, that can be used to determine how warm a room should be. Room type, size and level of insulation will all impact the style, size and finish of your ideal radiator. With sun rooms, obviously there will be more heat loss than in other rooms of the home and this will be taken into account", advises Nick.  

Efficiency

Energy efficiency is a top priority for most consumers today and there are some great models available as Nick comments, "With such a lot of the heat being lost through the glass, it is important to consider the efficiency of the radiators you install. Radiator manufacturers have taken strides to improve the efficiency of their products, and nowadays you can find something that will work in almost any situation. Radiators that have less water in them require less energy to heat up and as a result, should be cheaper to run. There are a wide range of ‘efficiency’ radiators designed to work in this way, with some having only 10% of the water of a similar sized conventional radiator".

Electric Radiators

"For those that only use their conservatory or sun room on an irregular basis during the colder months, or perhaps just want to keep any damp and mould problems at bay, an electric radiator could be the best option. Modern electric radiators comes with a whole host of controllability helping with energy consumption and more and more are now available with smart technology too, allowing the user to control the radiator from an app", advises Nick

Design

Last but certainly not least, design and style can never be overlooked. "Today's designs come in an almost unlimited palette of colours and finishes, including mirrors, glass, twists of stainless steel and even pictures or photos personalised onto the heating panels. Whatever interior style you choose for your sun room, there's certainly plenty of choice. A popular option is to make the radiator into an interior feature, such as choosing a mirrored finish which can then reflect the garden into the room itself", comments Nick.