So the weather has turned cold, and we have been reading on Twitter messages from people in their shed offices saying how cold they are! This concerns us at The Garden Room Guide, as a well built garden office should be as comfortable to use in the winter as a room in the main house. The clue to these Tweeters problems may be the term ‘shed office’ some garden offices are just that – glorified sheds with minimal insulation and terrible u-values, which require significant heating which is then lost through the thin walls and roof.
The garden offices featured on The Garden Room Guide are built more like timber framed houses and the manufactures try to meet if not exceed the current building regulation standards for insulation.
You should consider when buying a garden office how you are going to heat it, some suppliers offer a heating solution as standard whilst others don’t offer any heating at all so it is important to read garden office specifications carefully and talk to the different suppliers.
When choosing your heating type it’s a good idea to choose a type of heating that has a timer and a thermostat which will keep the garden office at a constant temperature, the messages on Twitter say how people are having to go down to their shed office a couple of hours before they start work, to turn the heating on, a heating system with a timer would overcome this problem and let you programme the heating to turn on and warm up before you are due at your desk. A thermostat could be set so the heating kicks in when the temperature drops to a certain level, this would mean that your garden office would never get too cold – important for you as the user but also for computer equipment and soft furnishings.
Suggested Garden Office Heating
Underfloor Heating
Underfloor heating has become a popular option in garden offices over recent years. A mat with heating cables is laid under the finished floor. Economical to run underfloor heating covers the whole of the garden office floor area and the heat rises, so the room as a whole stays warm. Underfloor heating systems can be fitted with timers and thermostats so you can control when the heating is on and select the desired temperature for the garden office
Oil Filled Radiators
Oil filled radiators are free standing heaters, often on wheels that can be positioned where you want in the garden office, you can keep them on low and they provide good background heat and quickly heat the room fully when you turn the heating up. Better quality oil filled radiators come with timers and thermostats so they kick in when the temperature falls to a certain level and switch off when the desired level is reached.
Electric Convector Heaters
Although they can be free standing electric convector heaters are normally mounted on the wall of the garden office like a radiator, they blow out warm air which heats the office quickly, better quality models come with timers and thermostats. The downside of this type of heating is that it dries the air out and the room can become hot quickly.
Whatever type of garden office heating you choose you should make sure the heater has sufficient wattage to heat the size of the building and this should be coupled with well insulated floors, walls and roof and double glazing.
So, if you want to be warm as you work in your garden office choose a building that is insulated like a timber frame house not a shed with a little insulation added!
