How to Keep a Conservatory Warm in Winter

When winter arrives, many conservatory owners face the same frustrating problem: their beloved room becomes uncomfortably cold and virtually unusable. If you’re wondering how to keep a conservatory warm in winter, you’re not alone. Conservatories are brilliant for extending your living space and flooding your home with natural light, but without the right thermal solutions, they can quickly become an expensive room you simply avoid during the colder months.

At Reddish Joinery, we’ve spent over 60 years helping Greater Manchester homeowners create timber conservatories that remain comfortable and welcoming throughout the year. In this blog, we’ll explore everything you need to know about how to keep your conservatory warm in winter.

Why Conservatories Lose Heat

Before looking into solutions, it’s helpful to understand why conservatories struggle with warmth during winter.

A typical conservatory is essentially a glass room. While this is perfect for capturing sunshine in summer, it creates significant challenges when temperatures drop. Glass is an excellent conductor of heat, meaning thermal energy escapes through your conservatory roof and walls far more readily than through conventional solid walls.

Key heat loss culprits include:

• Glazing surfaces – accounting for up to 80% of heat loss in poorly designed conservatories
• Poor roof insulation – many older conservatories lack adequate insulation in their roof structures
• Draughts and air leaks – gaps around frames, doors and vents allow warm air to escape
• Thermal bridging – where materials like aluminium frames conduct cold from outside to inside
• Inadequate heating – many conservatories rely on inefficient, under-powered heating systems

Understanding these issues is the first step towards creating a genuinely warm conservatory space that remains pleasant from October to March.

Transform Your Glazing: The Foundation of Warmth

Your choice of glazing is perhaps the single most important factor in keeping a conservatory warm in winter. If you’re serious about year-round usability, investing in superior glazing technology should be your priority.

Double Glazing vs Triple Glazing

Traditional single-glazed conservatories are essentially heat sieves. Double glazing represents a significant step forward, while triple glazing offers exceptional thermal performance.

Double glazing works by creating an insulating air gap between two panes of glass. This trapped air acts as a barrier, dramatically reducing heat transfer compared to single glazing. Most modern conservatories use double glazing as standard, and for good reason.

Triple glazing takes this further with three panes and two insulating air gaps. While more expensive, triple glazing:

• Further reduces heat loss compared to double glazing
• Significantly improves sound insulation
• Enhances condensation resistance
• Provides superior long-term energy efficiency

For properties in Greater Manchester and the North West, where winter temperatures regularly dip below freezing, triple glazing is increasingly popular with homeowners committed to genuine thermal comfort.

Low Emissivity (Low-E) Glass

Standard glass allows infrared radiation to pass straight through. Low-emissivity (Low-E) glass, however, features a special coating that reflects heat back into your conservatory while allowing visible light through.

This technology is genuinely transformative. Low-E glass coatings:

• Reflect radiant heat back into your conservatory interior
• Substantially reduce heating costs
• Maintain excellent natural light levels
• Work year-round (reflecting summer heat outwards, winter heat inwards)

When combined with double or triple glazing, Low-E glass creates an exceptionally efficient thermal envelope. Most premium conservatory installations now specify Low-E glass as standard.

Insulate Your Conservatory Roof

Your conservatory roof is where a large amount of heat escapes during winter months. Proper roof insulation is absolutely essential for maintaining warmth and reducing heating costs.

Understanding Conservatory Roof Types

Different conservatory designs require different insulation approaches.

Polycarbonate roofs – common in budget conservatories – offer minimal insulation value. If you have a polycarbonate roof and serious concerns about winter warmth, upgrading to a glass roof with integrated insulation is genuinely transformative. Modern polycarbonate panels do include some insulation properties, but glass with integrated insulation substantially outperforms them.

Glass roofs with built-in insulation – premium options feature integrated insulation layers between glass panes or within the roof structure. These provide excellent thermal performance.

Tiled roofs – if you’re replacing your conservatory roof or upgrading, consider modern lightweight tile systems designed for conservatories. These integrate insulation while providing the aesthetic of a traditional roof.

As you can see, there are several effective ways to keep your conservatory warm in winter. If you’d like to find out more about how Reddish Joinery can help you to enhance your glazed extension, get in touch today. You can call us on 0161 969 7474 or send us a message online and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.