CONSERVATORY ROOF SHADING - How to be comfortable in your conservatory even on the hottest days

It’s spring and you’re sitting in your conservatory that doesn’t have blinds. The outside temperature is 20 degrees Centigrade and partly cloudy. With clouds covering the sun the conservatory remains relativeley comfortable, however the moment the sun comes out you will almost immediateley feel hot and uncomfortable.

This in a phenomenon called ‘Instantaneous Heat Gain” where your body heats up far beyond your surroundings. The room temperature certainly hasn’t risen that much but the effects of the sunlight on your body has caused you to feel a lot hotter than the room.

Any conservatory without some sort of shading will be very uncomfortable on sunny summer days, particularly so a south facing one. Added to this, with predominantly light materials used in conservatories there is the additional problem of glare.

The sun emits short wave radiation that changes to long wave as it passes through the window onto objects in the conservatory. The long wave radiation bounces off these obects and, unable to pass back out through the window causes a build up known as the ‘Greenhouse Effect’ which can make rooms, particularly conservatories very hot and uncomfortable.

So how can you take control of your conservatory and use it even on the hottest sunniest day of the summer.? Well from the information above it is pretty obvious that you need to control the amount of sun entering the conservatory, particularly through the roof. Tranluscent roof materials will cut out some of the direct sunlight but but not all of it, even a small percentage of direct sunlight can cause discomfort so the more you can cut out the better.

The only effective way to control the climate in your conservatory is with some type of roof shading. The most efficient is with an external awning which will onviously cut out the sunlight before it enters the conservatory, however you need to take into consideration the cost and also the fact that an awning will affect the appearance of your conservatory and property. The next option is roof blinds, fitted internally to your conservatory. Pleated blinds are ideal for conservatory roof shading as they can be made up into all of the unusual shapes which can be found in conservatory roofs. There are however many types of pleated blind fabric on the market, so care needs to be taken when choosing the fabric for your blind or you can end up with a costly roof blind system which really doesn’t give you the control you need. Some sort of coating on the fabric to reflect the short wave radiation out of the room with little effect on its wave length is a must, this will avoid the build up of heat between the glass and the blind. A fabric which cuts out as much direct sunlight as possible will give you the most control. For example a fabric which cuts out 100% of sunlight will give you 100% control of your environment. With all the blinds closed you will cut our 100% of the sunlight and by opening some or all of the blinds you can let in up to 100% of the sunlight.
Certainly with the correct roof blinds fitted you will be able to take control of your conservatory and and be able to use it on even the hottest, sunniest summers day.
With the roof blinds sorted you can add side blinds in vertical, roller, pleated, or venetian blinds for privacy making your conservatory a valuable extra living space

We offer a conservatory shading solutioon. To receive a no obligation quote just let us have the maximum overall width and length of your conservatory and the type (ie. lean to, victorian etc) by email to sales@blinds247.com