Insulating a polycarbonate roof for winter Conservatories are a great all-round addition to any home. Find help, advice and information on all aspects of this area.

[manman]

We have a hardwood framed conservatory with large but double glazed windows and the walls have good insulation. However, the roof has the usual 3-ply polycarbonate roof. Part of the roof (the bigger part) slopes down away from the house wall and part is what I think they refer to as 'Victorian' with a ridge coming out from the house wall falling on one side to a valley where it meets the other part of the roof and to the outside (side) wall on the other side. So while part of the roof is quite simple construction with long roof beams, the 'Victorian' part is made up of smaller panels and is quite complicated.

We want to insulate the roof but we want to be able to remove the insulation during the summer months. We like the look of the hardwood roof beams and do not want to ruin them in fitting insulation if we can avoid it. We recognise that this will be an investment and that we may not save the cost (in heating) in the first year but we are retired so initial cost is a factor. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[welsh brickie]

the only way I can think of is inserting poltstyrene in between the roof
bars internally.
You can buy sheets of it from a builders merchants and cut individual pieces for each section these can then be removed in the winter.
But I would consider a glass roof in future,cost is quite reasonable.

[janfit]

The best solution would be to upgrade the triplewall 16mm polycarbonate to 35mm 7 wall polycarbonate. This would increase the U value from 2.4 to 1.2 W/m2k which is as good as argon filled double glazed units. This would keel the high levels of light and would enable the conservatory to be used throughout the year. Another thing to check would be drafts coming in from under the eaves. If this is the case you may want to look at putting in eaves filler. They are low cost foam insulation strips which fit betwwen the eaves beam and the roofing sheet. You can get them from a company called Omegabuild.