How Do Garden Rooms And Orangeries Stay Temperature Regulated During Fluctuating Weather Conditions?

Great Britain is characterised by fluctuating weather conditions. This is why Westbury Garden Rooms have been designed to keep you cool during the hotter days, and warm when the colder weather creeps back in. We explore the ways garden rooms can keep a regulated temperature whatever the weather may throw at you.

A modern glazed extension is a room that is used every day, often serving as a dining area, family room, kitchen, or a combination of these. As a result, it needs to be comfortable and enjoyable all year round. The technologies we use when constructing your Westbury Garden Room ensure the building doesn’t get too hot or cold, so you can use it comfortably in all seasons. High performance glass, adequate ventilation, and good insulation work together to keep the room temperature just right in fluctuating weather conditions.

1. Using Top-Performing Glazing to Mitigate Fluctuating Weather Conditions

New double glazing reduces the amount of heat transfer, which is essential during both warm and colder temperatures. It prevents heat escaping a property in cold weather and limits the amount of heat transferring into the building during summer. It considerably outperforms old double glazing in hindering the flow of heat from either side, which is why top-performing glazing is essential for coping with the weather in all seasons.

So how can we measure exactly how efficient our glazing is?

Not all windows offer the same thermal performance, but tests can reveal a product’s U-value. The lower the U-value is, the better the material’s energy efficiency (its ability to stop heat transfer).

Therefore, glazing with a low U-value is ideal for use in garden rooms and orangeries to keep the heat in during winter, and out during summer. The Centre Pane U-value focuses on the efficiency of the sealed glazed unit; the value of our glass is 1.0 demonstrating its ability to stabilise the temperature of a garden room under fluctuating weather conditions.

We use our expert understanding of glazed structures to design garden rooms that regulate their temperature throughout the seasons. Toughened glass and double glazing filled with argon gas is used for all products, meaning our glazed structures have excellent energy efficiency.

Solar reflective glass is an option that works wonderfully in our roof lanterns and garden rooms. Westbury Sun Guard is a neutral glass that has 70% light transmittance, whilst reflecting solar heat. This helps to prevent overheating whilst still allowing a lot of natural light to transmit through the glass.

In the winter, solar reflective glass will also keep your home warm as it reflects the heat back into the room, helping to keep down energy bills. The coating reduces glare and UV, also preventing your furnishings from fading.

2. The Role of Mechanical Ventilation during Fluctuating Weather Conditions

A highly effective way of encouraging cross ventilation of the room is through automatic thermostatic roof vents.

Hot air rises when cooler, more dense air is pulled closer to the Earth’s surface. Roof vents help to maintain this cooling movement by letting the warm air escape. This occurs through both convection and radiation.

Convection

Energy.gov explains that convection occurs when heat is carried away from your body and objects in the room by moving air. This is replaced by cooler air that takes its place and forces it to rise upwards, therefore absorbing more of your warmth and continuing the cycle. Ventilation enhances this process, helping you to keep cool.

Radiation

Radiation happens when heat is emitted throughout the room; if the furniture in the room is warmer than you are, the heat travels towards you and makes you hotter. By installing roof vents in your orangery or garden room, the heat can escape, keeping the furniture colder. This then helps you to cool down, as you will radiate heat to the furniture instead.

Westbury roof lantern vents are made from timber glazed sash internally, with an aluminium shroud. They are powered by an electric motor that responds to a thermostat, so they open automatically when the room starts to become too warm. They also feature rain sensors, which close the vents as the first drop of rain falls, so you’re never caught out by the unpredictable British weather.

3. Installing Underfloor Heating to Manage Fluctuating Weather Conditions

During the cold winter months, your orangery helps you to entertain and relax in comfort and warmth, whilst enjoying the garden views outside. It provides an extension of the living space and a social area in which to experience the atmosphere of your garden.

Underfloor heating is a favoured addition, keeping your garden room a consistent temperature all year round. It gives flexibility to your interior design, allowing for lower cills and simple, unencumbered wall space due to there being no need for radiators.

Parcel Theory

Underfloor heating is an innovative way of heating a garden room whilst minimising heat loss, helping you to navigate fluctuating weather conditions. This can be explained best by Parcel Theory. Whilst most people understand that warm air rises because it is lighter than cool air, there is a missing piece to the puzzle that is fundamental to this movement. The warm air only moves upwards when it is forced to by the cool air that is pulled below it by gravity. This is where underfloor heating comes into play, as it maintains the temperature of the flooring, stopping cold air from continually pushing the warm air up and out of the room. Underfloor heating delivers an even spread of heat across the room, meaning less energy is lost to the atmosphere, improving efficiency.

Furniture and Focal Points

An important consideration when installing underfloor heating is making sure that your furniture has space underneath it and rugs are not too thick, as this can block the convection of heat into the space. Choosing chairs and sofas with space underneath can both enhance the feeling of space in the room and ensure that your heating is working as efficiently as possible by enabling the heat to distribute more evenly throughout the room.

Many clients choose to incorporate an open fireplace or wood burning stove into their design, as well as an underfloor heating system. This is not for necessity, but to create ambience during the colder months, or a focal point in an open-plan living space. A fireplace gives a room gravitas, making the new structure feel established and integral to the existing home.

4. The Role of Insulation in Keeping a Regulated Internal Temperature

An important factor that affects how energy flows through an object is the material it’s made from. When trying to keep your home temperature regulated, poor conductors should be used to minimise the energy transfer. This is why homes are built from brick, wood, and glass, as these are all poor conductors. Insulation helps to further slow the energy transfer between the external environment and interior of your home.

In the summer, energy transfers to the building from its warmer surroundings, whereas in the winter the opposite is true, with energy transferring out of the building to the immediate environment. This is where insulation can help to reduce the rate of energy transfer, keeping the internal temperature regulated whilst external weather conditions fluctuate.

Flat Roofing

Orangeries in particular feature brick built, insulated walls and a flat roof, all of which can be fully insulated and help to reduce warm air from entering your home in the summer. Flat roofs are typically more energy-efficient than pitched roofing due to the materials they are made with. The membrane system, which is applied on top of the insulation is generally very efficient due to there being less gaps than in a cavity system.

Double Glazing and Weather Seals

Double glazing, which we covered earlier, is also an effective insulator due to the argon gas in between the panes of glass, so you can be assured that even a predominantly glazed structure like a conservatory can still be efficient and maintain a comfortable temperature when high-performing glazing is used.

In addition, weather seals should be used across all doors and windows to prevent the air from outside entering your home, helping you to stay comfortable in your garden room as the warm summer turns to chilly autumn and winter days.

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There are many misconceptions about the temperature regulating abilities of garden rooms and orangeries, stemming from thoughts of 80s uPVC conservatories that could only be comfortably used for a few months of the year. Fortunately, developments in the design and performance of garden rooms mean that we can connect to the outdoors throughout the seasons from the comfort of contemporary timber-framed garden rooms and orangeries. If you are looking for a garden room that can be enjoyed all year round, request a brochure or email us.