Keeping a conservatory cool

[Adam]

We have a timber framed conservatory - which has single pane glass on the verticals, and this "plastic" double cell type sheet for the roof. Its water tight, and we can't afford to replace it currently.

Problem is - it gets tremendously hot (50 deg +) as its south facing. Other than leaving windows open (which is a bit of a security hazard) does anyone have any good recommendations for keeping it cooler? I've seen this plastic stuff to stick on to reflect some of the sun, whilst still letting light through, and wondered about some kind of vent in the roof.

Anyone have any other good suggestions?

Adam

 

[dedee]

Adam,
have you considered any of the methods used to keep greenhouses shaded in summer ie a net, ideally this should be placed on the outside which might be impractical.

To keep the heat down in our two back bedrooms (west facing) we hangfoil backed emegency blankets on the inside, very effective but might be a bit expensive for a conservatory.

Andy

 

[wizer]

We have exactly the same affair, you can get vents for the twinwall roof I think. Other than that I would think blinds would reduce the heat quite a bit. The heat it fine for me as I have been growing tropical plants in there

 

[DomValente]

My wife bought some white muslin and arranged it to look like a bedouin tent on the inside ( I said it looked like a tarts boudoir, BIG mistake) .
But it worked and did look quite good, the temperature was reduced by a good 20 degrees, ours is also south facing.

Dom

 

[devonwoody]

Years ago we used to paint the roof(outside) with whitewash.

It does work, they have more efficient wahes these days which are reasonably rainproof, and when autumn arrived it could be stroked off with a brush/broom.

These days we have airconditioning
and our electric bill is fixed so we are able to run without worrying what the meter is doing???????????????