When you add a sunroom to your home it can bring the best views from outside and enjoy them while being in your home. During the winter months, a sunroom may be too cold to be enjoyed. When you constantly have to use your HVAC it is not always the best route to take and is likely to make your electricity bill quite a bit more. Don’t get discouraged so easily. There are more effective, affordable, and energy-saving ways to keep your sunroom nice and warm to be enjoyed this winter.
Energy Efficient Sunroom Heating Options
Taking the route of solar radiation can assist and help with heating your sunroom. But, it is somewhat necessary to add to the solar radiation with other heating sources. If you have a glass with a high solar heat production in your sunroom it may help with keeping it warmer through using solar radiation.
You will want to keep in mind the effect that large trees and branches may have on the solar heating of your sunroom. There may be no sense in installing the perfect SHGC glasses if they will just be shaded by a tree or some other object.
If you take the time to close off any little gaps, windows, doors, walls, and roofs in the sunroom it will keep warm air in. If warm air is kept in you should not have to run the heat nonstop. Any gaps around pipelines and electrical wires will lead to having a much colder room and may leak heat from your sunroom causing your bills to increase. Cock these gaps with a precise material to dodge radiating heat or warm air leaving.
Looking into clear plastic may also be an option on your windows. Clear plastic is easy to tape over existing window frames. This can create added insulation for the space in between the window and its frame and can be taken off easily when summer comes back around.
If the floor space in your sunroom loses heat to the outside, you may want to consider it being as simple as laying a rug to act as added insulation. The floor can have a big impact on the room temperature.
Having environmentally-friendly rooms can come down to simply making use of the sun’s energy to heat your sunroom. You will need to decide the source you want to use to keep your sunroom at a comfortable temperature during the winter, and plan that ahead of time.
Electrical Sunroom Heating Options
These options will completely depend on the budget you are working with! Choosing to extend your HVAC into the sunroom may be an option, but it will definitely add a significant cost to your heating bill. It can also require having someone regularly service it, which will end up mighty costly.
Another option may be looking into a wall-mounted unit, however, they tend to be really noisy. Unfortunately, this will ruin the peaceful atmosphere of your sunroom. They can be quite expensive to buy and have installed as well.
Space heaters are a considerable option for a tight budget and small room to heat, however, the room will need to be constantly checked since they can start a fire. Do not keep them somewhere in the sunroom that will be a possible hazard by flammable material. Now that you have that in mind, it could still be the best fit in overall pricing and operating costs.
Space heaters come in all various kinds but mostly are electrically powered. You can find electrical heaters that perform “air heating” or “air radiating.” Both are something to consider for the space you have to work with.
Using an inexpensive timer to set the times that you run your space heater will help save electricity. A timer with a thermostat attached is even better in regards to the energy used to heat your sunroom. A good thing about a space heater is you can remove them during the warmer seasons.
Electrical baseboard heaters could be a useful option if you want a permanently installed heat source in your sunroom. They have all of the same advantages that space heaters have but remain a permanent installation in your sunroom. They are not noisy and can provide very efficient heat to the area.
Heating flooring may be something to look into, this means having a heat source included in the floor of your sunroom that will disperse heat through the floor into the room. On the downside, these systems are normally rather costly to install and operate.
Fireplaces without vents are sometimes the heat source people prefer, they add atmosphere and peacefulness to your sunroom. The downside is that they can be very costly to install and repair.
Whatever method you choose to heat your sunroom will result in wanting a humidifier along with it. This is because moist air keeps in the heat much better than dry air and helps keep your heating cost as low as possible. If you are dealing with a strict budget it could be as simple as keeping a bowl filled with water near your heating source. This will allow the water to evaporate into the air as a vapor.
Do you have your own sunroom to enjoy nature’s beautiful views yet? Let Monster Home Services of Nashville help today!