Window Ventilation:

Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation. When thinking about your new room one of the most important design criteria is ventilation. It is no secret that conservatories can become extremely warm rooms in summer. So to make the room as usable as possible all year round quantity really is the key. Top opening vents remain the most popular way of providing ventilation.
We have found that conservatory designers / sales men have tunnel vision when it comes to ventilation; all they can see are top opening vents above a transom. We always recommend including some larger push out opening vents below the transom to maximize ventilation. A large opening vent below the transom can let in almost three times the ventilation of a top opening vent; this obviously gets your new conservatory more ventilation for your money. For instance if you are considering four opening vents we would recommend two top opening vents and two large push out opening vents below the transom for a good balance between the two. We find in our office/showroom that the large opening vents make a massive difference when we are working in them over the summer months.
It is advisable to leave the internal door open and let the house and conservatory air circulate, and with the levels of locking systems and security glazing we have available you can still feel secure in your home while allowing the warm air from the conservatory to dissipate through the house.
Roof vents are a very effective way of controlling the climate in the conservatory (see more in the roof vents section of the menu).

Types of opening vents:
• Top opening vents
• Large bottom opening vents (Highly recommended) .
• Tilt & Turn vents

Traditional Conservatory Style:
Weather you go for Victorian, Edwardian, “P” Shape or a totally bespoke design there are several ways to design the side wall layout of a conservatory. The modern way of designing the sidewall frames is to run a 74mm horizontal transom bar approximately 450mm from the top of the window frames. This then allows for small top opening vents to be positioned to suit the design of the conservatory or possibly all along to keep the glass lines the same (the glass in an opening vent is smaller than in a fixed frame).

The traditional way of designing the sidewall frames for a conservatory is to have no horizontal transom bar. This allows for one single pane of glass per conservatory section. This is an attractive design and there are no obstructions when looking into the garden.

There is one small design constraint with this design. When this sidewall design is used with a 600mm dwarf wall the normal frame height will be 1500mm (approx depending on site details) and this dimension is out of manufacturing tolerances for a normal casement window. However Tilt & Turn windows can be manufactured to larger dimensions than casement windows so this is our preferred choice. Tilt & Turn windows also provide excellent ventilation when in the tilt position.
Alternatively a higher dwarf wall can be used to create the look.

If you are unsure of the best design for your home our conservatory designers will be happy to produce photo Cad drawings for both designs.
This is an example of a traditional side wall design in a “P” Shape style of conservatory we installed early in 2005.