Kieran McCarthy: The conservatory is sucking heat out of the house. What should we do?

Conservatories were a house design breakthrough that grew in popularity during the 1990s, writes Kieran McCarthy

"The walls and the roof were made from glass, usually single-glazed. The issue here is that single-glazed glass will allow nearly all the heat to escape in winter and provide no defence against solar gain when the sun shines in summer."

Hi Kieran, 

We built a conservatory about 15 years ago which is sucking the heat out of our house. We had the roof insulated and plastered and lightweight tiles put on so it looks like a proper roof from outside, but it hasn’t made much difference.