If you have a sunroom in your house, that means you get to bring the outdoors inside without the bugs and bad weather. But if you’re like most homeowners with sunrooms, you spend less time in that space during the colder months.
Knowing how to keep a sunroom warm in winter could be the key to helping you enjoy the benefits all year round.
Here are some simple, easy ways to keep your sunroom warm and cozy all winter long so you can continue to bring the outdoors in—without bundling up.
Some Smart, Simple Sunroom Heating Solutions.
Do you know how to insulate a sunroom for winter?
Before you hibernate, you need to insulate. It takes a two-pronged strategy to keep any room in your home warm in winter:
- Circulating heat
- Keeping that heat from escaping
Before you even think about spending money to heat your sunroom, here’s how to insulate your sunroom for winter:
- Install weather-stripping around windows to keep warm air from leaking around the frames. You can also seal the areas between the wall and the window frames by applying caulk. It’s a critical first step in winter sunroom insulation.
- Put clear plastic insulation over the windows. Glass isn’t a great insulator, so it won’t do much to keep the heat in and the cold out. Hopefully, your sunroom was built with insulated windows, which includes two pieces of glass with a spacer between. Add a layer of plastic insulation to the surface of your windows to trap in more warm air. While it doesn’t give you the same R-value as solid insulation, plastic insulation can make a noticeable difference, especially when it comes to single-pane glass.
- Apply tinting to the windows to keep radiant heat from escaping. While it may slightly diminish your view, tinting lets the sun warm your sunroom without letting a lot of that solar energy escape.
- Install insulated drapes to cover your windows at night or when it’s cloudy outside. During the day, you can open the drapes to let the light into your sunroom and then close them in the evening to retain as much of the day’s solar heat as possible.
- Add insulation to the walls and ceiling. It may seem a little daunting—not to mention expensive—but it will pay off in the long run, and it can be an opportunity to wrap the concept into a larger remodeling project.
- Cover the floor. You can reduce heat loss by adding carpet or rugs to your sunroom floor. You’ll keep more heat inside and be a lot more comfortable walking around the sunroom in your bare feet.
Protect more,
pay less with 2-10
Low-cost home service plans.
Top options for heating sunrooms
Now that you’ve taken care of your winter sunroom insulation, you can start thinking about warming the space. Some of the best strategies include:
- Add a ceiling fan to force warm air downward. By flipping the setting on a ceiling fan to clockwise, you can capture and circulate warm air that otherwise just hovers high above your head.
- Use portable space heaters or an electric fireplace to warm up your sunroom for an hour or two. It’ll make for a much toastier, cozier, inviting space.
- Bring in a wood stove or portable fireplace that requires little to no installation. Just make sure you properly ventilate, so fumes cannot build and pose a health risk.
- Extend existing ductwork into your sunroom. While this isn’t cheap, it can help keep your sunroom warm during the winter—and cooler when temperatures soar in July and August.
- Install electric baseboards around the floor. This is a simple, efficient and relatively inexpensive sunroom heating solution.
Wrapping Things Up
The only thing better than being able to enjoy a sunroom during the warmer months is being able to enjoy it all year round. Let’s review how to keep a sunroom warm in winter.
Start with winter sunroom insulation. That means anything and everything from adding weather-stripping, plastic sheeting, tinting and insulating drapes to your windows, to adding winter sunroom insulation to the walls and ceiling and carpeting or rugs to the floor.
Next comes sunroom heating solutions, which can take the form a ceiling fan, space heaters, electric baseboards, and/or extending your home’s ductwork into the sunroom.
It’s all about making the most use of your sunroom all year long.
Get Peace of Mind with 2-10
Knowing how to keep a sunroom warm in winter can help you get more enjoyment out of your home. A home warranty from 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty can give you more peace of mind by protecting your budget and your home against covered breakdowns to your systems and appliances.
