Is glass enclosure warmer

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giraffebuffalo

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Thinking of converting an alfresco into a patio room by enclosing the two open sides of the alfresco with glass. This is what the alfresco currently looks like:

<img src="http://s3d1.turboimagehost.com/t1/17595198_DSC_0005.JPG">

<img src="http://s3d1.turboimagehost.com/t1/17595199_DSC_0006.JPG">

<img src="http://s3d1.turboimagehost.com/t1/17595200_DSC_0007.JPG">

The "room" will be used as a part time bedroom and for storage. May consider putting sliding door on either glass wall for circulation.

Also will put blinds on either glass wall to shade the room when necessary.

Question is, will this room be warmer than a normal brick-walled room because two walls are made of glass? In other words, will a glass enclosure be warmer than a brick enclosure. Assume I am in a warm climate where summer temperatures are between 25-40 degrees C and winter temperatues are between 10-20 degrees C.

Thanks for any input and reasoning.
 
A single sheet of glass has the same insulation properties as a single leaf brick wall.
Having written that: A brick wall, as built is full of holes, thousands of them, and is not easy to live with. But, it does supply shade and is a lot more comfortable to live with on a sunny day.

A sheet of glass, is air tight, waterproof, water vapour proof and allows the sun in, in the morning it will be very pleasant, before the sun shines and pushes the temperature up into the fifties. Then it becomes impossible to stay in the room.

Being able to get out of the sun, becomes very important, once you have experienced just how hot a sun lounge/green house is in summer. It is no use having internal blinds, they just get hot. You must have some form of shade that is outside the room, and is not in contact with the room
 
Thanks for the reply Perry and confirming my fears :(

I will put two sliding doors on either side. Also thinking I will have retractable windows at the top to let out the hot air from the top and allow circulation.

Do you think with that the room will still record high temperatures?
 
Sunlight is energy and so does not have 'a temperature'; one kw per sq. meter on the earth's surface is "insolation" and it varies with your location. It's the Solar Constant.

Brick absorbs the energy of sunlight and also has thermal mass and so evens out day/night temp changes.

Sunlight going through a glass walled room and being absorbed by something in that room as determined by the emissivity of that object will heat the air in that room.

Vertically rotating shades that are silvery on one side and dull black on the other wlll give max control of sunlight heat loading.

Your latitude and longitude will be determining this along with the number of continuous days of cloud cover.
 
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I suggest not going with glass walls. First of all, the heat build-up issues may well make the room unusable much of the time. Secondly, the glass and sliding glass doors will require foundations, with adequate wall framing to support them. Why not just have conventional walls installed, with a few smaller, venting windows included? Your choice of interior and exterior surface treatments.
 
giraffebuffalo said:
Thanks for the reply Perry and confirming my fears :(

I will put two sliding doors on either side. Also thinking I will have retractable windows at the top to let out the hot air from the top and allow circulation.

Do you think with that the room will still record high temperatures?
Click to expand...

I built my first conservatory with floor to ceiling glass patio doors, glass all round on three sides. I had under floor heating, in three zones, doubled up along the glass walls, to make sure we were warm in winter. It worked very well at night and at all times except when the sun shone. I made the mistake of building right across the back of our home, we had to enter the conservatory to enter the lounge and kitchen. When the sun shone it was so hot we had to take a deep breath and race round the conservatory to open all four doors, before we melted.

My current sun lounge has conveniently placed brick/block walls along the east, south and west walls to provide some shade, the windows to the west and east come only four feet down from the ceiling, we have a solid roof with eight inches of polyurethane insulation, no under floor heating, one inch of polystyrene on the floor, water filled radiators - it is so much easier to live with. We are able to keep the patio doors closed 99% of the time and any excess heat is pulled into our ventilation system to heat the north side of the home.
 
Appreciate the replies. The reason for glass is to allow light to come into the rest of the house. If the walls are bricked, this will reduce light to the living room of the house. So unfortunately this is not negotiable. The room is not intended to be used as a bedroom and will not usually be occupied.

Wuzzat,

Good idea. Will visit a shades shop to find out if they have the type of shades you are referring to.
 
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