# Conservatory Air Conditioning | What Actually Works

> Air conditioning for a conservatory or orangery. An honest look at what cooling can and cannot fix, what to do to the roof first, and what it costs.

*Climate Shield London — https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/conservatory-air-conditioning/. Verbatim from the page; this is the same content, not a summary.*

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![Wall-mounted indoor air conditioning unit installed above a sofa in a London living space](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/jobs/job-05-1200.webp)

# Conservatory air conditioning

A conservatory is the one room where we will sometimes tell you not to buy air conditioning yet. Not because it will not help, but because there are usually two cheaper things to do first and they change what you need to buy.

- Free survey and a fixed written price
- Sized from a calculation, not from the floor area
- One day on site for most single rooms

Call 07976 704160 [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/447976704160?text=Hi%20Climate%20Shield%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20air%20conditioning%20in%20a%20conservatory.)

## Book a free survey

We come out, measure, and send a written price. No charge, no obligation, and no deposit before you have seen the number.

## Brands we work with

![Daikin](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/daikin.ce47c11f.webp) ![Mitsubishi Electric](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/mitsubishi-electric.2977d309.webp) ![Samsung](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/samsung.3b6b3325.webp) ![Bosch](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/bosch.7d80a7ce.webp) ![Vaillant](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/vaillant.573f9864.webp)

A conservatory can need two to three times the cooling of an equivalent brick room, because a glazed roof admits far more solar energy than any wall. Deal with the roof first: film, blinds or an insulated roof panel will cut the load and the running cost more than a bigger unit will.

The sizing calculator on this site is built for ordinary rooms and it will under-size a glass-roofed conservatory, which is why this page exists rather than a slider.

## Why the calculator on this site does not fit this room

Our sizing model applies up to 30 percent for a room that is mostly glass, which is the right figure for a room with a lot of glazed wall. It has no factor at all for a glazed roof, and a glazed roof is a completely different case: it faces the sun for most of the day at the angle that admits most energy. Rather than pretend otherwise, here is what we actually see.

| Room | How it works out | Unit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Orangery, insulated roof, glazed walls | Behaves close to a normal room with large glazing | Calculator is about right |
| Conservatory, glass roof, north facing | Manageable. The roof still dominates | Expect above the calculator |
| Conservatory, glass roof, south or west | The hardest domestic room there is | Well above the calculator |
| Conservatory, polycarbonate roof | Worst of both: high gain, poor insulation, noisy in rain | Fix the roof first |
| Conservatory with roof film or blinds fitted | A different and much easier problem | Re-assess after fitting |

## The two things to do before buying any cooling

Deal with the roof. Solar control film, external or internal blinds, or replacing a polycarbonate roof with an insulated panel roof all cut the energy arriving in the room at the point it arrives, which is far more efficient than removing it again afterwards with a machine. A conservatory with a treated roof needs a smaller unit and costs less to run for the whole life of the system.

Then deal with the door to the house. A conservatory left open to the rest of the house is not a room being cooled, it is the whole ground floor being cooled through the hottest opening in the building. If the doors stay open, the system has to be sized for the combined space and it will still struggle.

Neither of those is work we do or sell, which is rather the point of mentioning them.

## What air conditioning does achieve in a conservatory

With the roof treated and the doors closed, a correctly sized system turns a conservatory from a room that is unusable for two months a year into one that is usable all year, and the all-year part is the half people forget.

The heating side is where a conservatory installation earns its money. A conservatory is usually the coldest room in the house in winter, often with no heating at all because extending the central heating into one is restricted, and an air conditioner running in heating mode solves that at three to four units of heat per unit of electricity.

A lot of the conservatory systems we fit get used far more in November than in July.

## Where the indoor unit goes when the walls are glass

This is the practical problem. A wall unit needs solid wall, and a conservatory has very little: usually the dwarf wall, which is too low, and the single brick wall shared with the house, which is often occupied by the doors.

The usual answers are a floor-standing unit, which sits below the glazing line and needs no wall at all, or a high-level unit on the house wall where there is a run above the doors. Where the conservatory has a solid or partly solid roof, a slim ducted unit becomes possible.

A floor-standing unit is often the right answer here and it is the one most quotes do not mention. It costs 150 to 350 pounds more than a wall unit and it removes the constraint entirely.

## What it costs

| Scope | System | Installed price |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Small conservatory, treated roof | 2.5 to 3.5kW wall or floor unit | £1,900 to £3,000 |
| Conservatory, glass roof, south facing | 5.0kW or larger, sized at survey | £2,300 to £3,900 |
| Floor-standing unit instead of wall | Where there is no usable wall | Add £150 to £350 |
| Orangery with insulated roof | Behaves like a normal large room | £2,300 to £3,600 |
| Annual service | Any make | £95 plus VAT |

Every figure on this site is an estimate based on published UK market ranges and our own installation experience. It is not a quotation. The price you are given after the free survey is the price you pay.

## Other rooms

[Bedrooms A bedroom is the hardest room in the house to get right, and not because it is difficult to cool. Bedrooms](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/bedroom-air-conditioning/) [Loft conversions A loft conversion is reliably the hottest room in a London house, and it is hot for three reasons at once: the roof above it, the heat rising into it from the rest of the house, and insulation that was designed to keep warmth in during winter. Loft conversions](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/loft-conversion-air-conditioning/) [Home offices A home office is a small room with a person and several hundred watts of electronics in it, occupied for eight hours at exactly the time of day the sun is on the building. Home offices](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/home-office-air-conditioning/) [Size any room The calculator behind every figure on this page, in kW and BTU, with the working shown. Sizing calculator](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/what-size-air-conditioning-do-i-need/)

### Get a price for this room

Tell us the room and the postcode. We come out, measure, and send a fixed written price. No charge and no obligation.

### Not sure what size?

The sizing calculator gives a well-founded starting point in about a minute.

[Work out the size](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/what-size-air-conditioning-do-i-need/) Call 07976 704160

## Conservatories: common questions

### Can air conditioning cool a conservatory in summer?

Yes, if it is sized for the actual solar gain and the doors to the house are closed while it runs. A conservatory with an untreated glass or polycarbonate roof, doors open to the hall, and a unit sized as though it were a normal room will disappoint everybody, and that is the installation people describe when they say it did not work.

Treat the roof, close the doors, size it properly, and it works.

### Is it cheaper to fix the roof or to buy a bigger unit?

Almost always the roof, and it keeps paying. Solar control film or blinds cut the energy entering the room rather than removing it afterwards, so they reduce both the size of unit you need and what it costs to run for the next fifteen years.

We do not sell roof film or blinds, so there is nothing in it for us either way. It is just the right order to do it in.

### Why will your calculator not size a conservatory?

Because it has a factor for glazed walls and none for a glazed roof, and in a conservatory the roof is the dominant load. Using it here would give a confident number that is too small, and an undersized unit in a conservatory is the most visible way to get this wrong.

We would rather say that than produce a figure we do not stand behind. A survey takes the roof construction, the orientation and the glazed area and works from those.

### Will it heat the conservatory in winter?

Yes, and for many conservatories that is the bigger gain. A conservatory is frequently the coldest room in the house and often has no heating in it at all.

An air conditioner in heating mode delivers roughly three to four units of heat per unit of electricity, which makes it far cheaper to run than the electric heater most people put in a conservatory instead.

## Free survey for a conservatory

We measure the room, do the heat load calculation properly, and give you a fixed written price with the model on it. If a smaller unit is the right answer, we will tell you.

Call 07976 704160 [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/447976704160?text=Hi%20Climate%20Shield%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20air%20conditioning%20in%20a%20conservatory.)

Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 3pm, Sunday closed

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