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problem solving air conditioning in conservatory.
Nanny Beach
Posts: 8,719
There must be folk out there with air conditioning in their conservatorues. Mine faces NE, but even without this unusally hot weather, it gets hot, beause we live in a detached bungalow and not overlooked or shaded by anything. Its big, 21x11, so this year we bought the Australian shade blinds for the roof, no way we could afford made to measure blinds. To be honest, I think they would be a nightmare anyway, you get a huge amount of dead flies the glass side, every couple of days I unhook one end, then vacuum them off the floor. We had a unit you put water in the back, I used ice cubes, it gave up the ghost, was debating buying another one, or an air conditing unit with flexy hose to outside, or having a built in unit, (like you get in hotels abroad) have read so many reviews, mind is now boggled, it wont happen till the winter ready for next year, is is worth going the whole hog, what sort of cost are we looking at, installation and running cost, some of the comparission sites they are really expensive to run, (like the one in your car using up all your fuel!) Even a basic model like we had before for a room this size is quite a few hundred pounds, dont want to make the wrong desision.
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The most effective way to keep a glass room cool is to have shades on the outside of the glass - but in our windy climate that is very difficult to do cheaply (or at all in some places). The problem with any sort of internal blind is the heat is already inside the room when it gets to the blind. The blind itself gets hot and acts like a radiator. A highly reflective back to the blind helps and if you have single glazing, that will probably be pretty good. If it's double glazed though, the glazing traps more of the heat inside so the reflection helps but may not be enough to keep it actually cool.
Air conditioning is expensive to run in the UK because our humidity is usually high. Without getting in to the technicalities, a cooler in typical UK summer weather is working at least twice as hard as one in a drier climate at the same temperature.
Effective ventilation is probably a better option, or planting a tree or a climber that will give you summer shade but lose its leaves to let winter light in. By effective ventilation I mean 'cross vent' - i.e. openings near the floor and in the roof and at opposite ends of the room. Your money may be better spent on buying some automatic open/close devices for vents controlled by a temperature sensor. In this weather, the vents would probably be already open by the time you wake up. You could also get a ceiling fan to keep the air moving.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
My long term solution is to get air conditioning installed - the kind that will fit into the dwarf wall which sits flush with the outside ie. no ugly box either side but that would cost in the region of £2500 - £3000.
I am toying with the idea next year of painting the outside of the roof glass with Coolshade as you would do for a greenhouse??
I too have a similar conservatory. 16ft x8ft, on the NW facing end of a single storey extension. Double glazed, brown tinted, reflective glass, central pitch roof with vents plus extra vents in each corner of the roof which can be opened and closed manually. When it was being built I insisted on wide, double, sliding doors in the long side and a normal width door at the S. end. (the contractor thought I was mad) I was also persuaded against automatic vents as being more trouble than they are worth. There are two roof windows which are operated manually with winder handles and fan light windows along the length and across the N. end. It has a low brick wall and is fitted against a red brick wall now painted white.
Despite having every window and door being left open day and night it has still been registering 100o most days so in this weather, there is not much more you can do. Like you I have moved all plants except 3 cacti and some succulents, out into garden. You would need to keep everything closed to run air conditioning, at great expense, which if cost is not a problem, probably is the solution.
Thermometer hit 46C in there last week.
Very good for drying the laundry.
I love my conservatory, except for the dead flies, spiders and having to clean it down 3-4 times a year to get rid of the mould from the damp. I have had infestations of minute flying beetles hatching in the framework, red spider mite etc. but I still love it, still need to clean down the outside and inside of the roof and guttering. I did use it as a glorified greenhouse until I acquired a freebie 6x8 greenhouse from Freecycle earlier in the year.
Now I am like a pig in muck, no need to fight my way through tomato and cucumber plants to sit down. The cat is using it as her bedroom, sort of inside but outside as well. She has taken over the dog's bed so she can relax properly.