We had a Four Seasons Conservatory built onto our last house. It had a glass roof. They are very well built sunrooms, we would have no hesitation in recommending the product, but they are franchises so you still have to check out the contractor. Ours was warm in winter, cool in summer, our faced southeast & we had several trees. It was an extension of our home, no one wanted to sit anywhere other than the conservatory. If I lived in a very warm climate & had to place it on a southern exposure I would consider a conventional roof, as no glass no matter how good is going to stay cool in extreme conditions.
But quite often in the summer, the conservatory was cooler than the rest of the house because of the way the windows could be opened & catch the slightest breeze.

Also consider how you are going to clean the roof. Because we had large trees I had to clean it a couple of times a year. I bought professional window washing tools & it wasn't too bad.

Mfrog, can I ask where what state you live in. Other than not having trees sounds like you still faced the south so you go sun all day. Was your roof all glass? How big a room? Did you have HVAC in the room or just rely on your current home to feed hot/cold air into the space. Any leaking issues? Thanks

A Four Seasons sun room was installed about a year before I purchased my house. It leaks every time there is a snowfall (or there is snow on the roof) and the room is heated. I called the office in Ann Arbor and they it looks like they shot some caulk at the edge of the glass panel where the leak occurs. It continues to leak (13+years). From my understanding the warranty did not carry over when the house was sold. IMHO buyer beware.

Make sure you can entirely close and seal off this room from the rest of the house as these can be huge energy drains.
However they can also be an energy gain, for instance on a cold sunny day they can provide heat and on a cool night after a hot day they can help remove heat from the house.

cecilt; Sorry I didn't see your message til now.

We faced southeast, the only time we had direct sun was from around 11:30 - 1:30 in the heat of the summer. We are in southern BC, weather similar to westcoast of Washington & Oregon, temperate most of the year.

The room was 14 x 12, it was built on post & pier as opposed to a full foundation. We never had a problem with extreme heat, in the full heat of the day it was only ever 1 or 2 degrees warmer than outside, believe me we tried to get it hotter just as a test. We didn't have air conditioning in the house, but it was never a problem. Just open the windows on the shady side & you would get nice ventilation.

The roof was all glass, my only complaint would be make sure you have access to clean it easily if you have trees nearby.
We had a small gas fireplace put in which had a timer on it, we would get up in the morning to find the room nice & warm & the cat rolling around in front of the fire.

We had one small leak where the builders forgot to put in a piece of flashing, not on the sunroom part, but on the solid wall area, it was taken care of the same day that I called.

Four Seasons is a franchise, so it is most important to check out the builders. We checked them out thoroughly, they were professional, wrote up a contract, we knew what they were doing & we knew what we were responsible for, they stuck to the timeline & the workers were clean & respectful.

I don't know what else I can add, other than, if we were to do it over, we would have bought a bigger one, because we lived in that room. It's so wonderful to be out in the garden especially in the gloom of west coast winters.

Ya. I agree with mfrog that it is important to check out the builders. Detail research needs to be done to make sure they are experience enough (have positive track record) in using the materials and building the sunrooms of similar concept like you do.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunrooms Solariums

Note long term issues--My sunroom glass fogged up and started to leak in one spot. No help from four seasons people. Got independent to re-manufacture the metal and glass and re-install. It looks beautiful, but leaks like a sieve. He calked it all over, but it still leaks at the joints. He says the seal is not replaceable because it is obsolete, and blames it on my roof, which was checked and ok'd by my roofer. Bottom line, it only lasted about 15 years.

P.S. When the glass was replaced, it was up to new codes to keep heat in in the winter. Unfortunately, it is so hot in the summer as to render the room unusable. It melts my candles and overheats my hot tub, kicking in the overheat safety switch.

I spoke to a woman who had a sunroom added to her house. She said if she had to do it over, she would have installed a radiant heat floor.

I can see how having a glass roof might make it difficult to control the temperature. Perhaps something like this would help?

"Smart Tint is private frosted opaque when powered off and transparent clear when powered on.Smart Tint is easily installed on any new or existing glass surface, offering durable privacy on demand, extreme clarity and maximum performance with the click of a button. Smart Tint is the next generation in switchable privacy glass! Dim it, Project on it, Stick it Hang it, use it as a white board, high tech window treatment and more!"

I do not know this company, but like the idea of being able to use a remote control to 'turn off the lights'!

A link that might be useful.

www.smarttint.com/

We loved our four seasons room, but it has been a lot of trouble. We bought a home that already had a large Four Seasons sunroom on it and turns out many of the seals were failed or failed in the first 2 years of ownership. Four Seasons is the only company that can work on these rooms so they set the price on repairs which are incredibly high. We were told our warranty wasn't transferable, so we were out of luck there.

Our quote to replace the failed windows increased 6k when we asked to get the original quote from a month earlier in writing. So we are stuck with this broken sun-room now. I would not recommend this specific company to anyone, even though the rooms are very nice to look at.

Also the windows with broken seals collect a ton of condensation and give a "raining effect" inside the room when it gets below 32 degrees.

I think it's an awesome idea, so much more light! We got our a few months back and we've being enjoying it since! And even now, as the days get shorter and shorter, our baby is still able to take advantage of every minute of natural light.

Here is a link that might be useful: Conservatory Designs - where we got ours done

New month, fresh influx of spam. they seem to be every where today!!

Our Four Seasons all glass sunroom sucked right after installation

Seems the installer left some screws, washers (cant remember exactly......but they were meant to keep the cold from transferring to the inside. As a woman, I could even guess what was wrong when I found the unused, extra part when the inside glass started freezing over!! Now 20 years later, there are multiple panes worth broken deals and are cloudy, dripping between planes a complete waste of money!

*with broken seals

*Dripping water between panes

What good is a sun room when you pull the shades all the time so you dont have to see the mess???????