Building Regs for heating in an existing conservatory If you want to know how your DIY projects could be affected by building and planning regulations, click here to post questions and view answers

[Brizz76]

I bought my house 4 yrs ago with a consevratory already on it. The conservatory does not have any doors between it and the open plan kitchen and dining rooms - there are just open archways so the previous owner presumably removed the external "back door" and removed the dining room window to make an open doorway into the conservatory.

On what used to be the rear external wall of the house was an old fan heater, which was an electric fan plumbed into the central heating, which blew out air into the conservatory warmed by the hot CH water. I am broadly aware of the buidling regs issues with new conservatories and the need to have a proper connecting door between the original house and the new conservatory and I also know that you cannot put radiators in a conservatory which are plumbed straight into the CH as I think they need to be separately controlled.

My (long winded!) question is, can I replace the knackered fan heater with a new one, which will also be plumbed into the CH, without falling foul of buliding regs, or is the fact that the original owner did things wrong years ago still going to leave me open to problems. My surveyor didn't mention any problems during the survey in 2006.

Thanks for any help and apologies for the length of the explanation!

[Perry525]

Your situation is repeated across the country.

The problem here is the heat loss and condensation.

Heat and water vapour automatically head for the nearest cold surface.
In your case the glass/plastic in the conservatory.

This set up must be costing you a fortune.
It must be impossible to keep your home comfortable on a cold winters night.

Common sense indicates that you should replace the door and window - by all means have them open on that one day a year when it is hot!

Heating a conservatory where there is such a great heat loss, will always be a problem.

The best form of heating is underfloor as this can deliver enough heat to keep a conservatory warm on the coldest night.

I would doubt that a convector fan would have much effect on a cold night, providing it with its own thermostat controlled motorized valve will solve your problem.