Where do you live and how bad are the bugs? I've noticed over the last 7 years, with winters becoming much warmer and not killing off enough mosquitos, summers are becoming worse and worse. My friend added a screened porch just because of this. And I can see doing it for that reason alone.

However, I need sunlight to thrive. It could also be a deal breaker for me to kill an area in my home that gets the most sunlight. What times of day do you spend time in the back of your house? If it tends to be after dark, then no big deal. If it is during daylight hours, I'd reconsider blocking that light out. Especially not having it in the winter would be really hard.

We converted our screen in porch into sunroom.

@amuelle I added a 13' deep roof onto the back of our house. I put in columns and a stamped concrete floor. I was amazed at how much lighter it made the south side of the house. Sun coming in from the south bounced off the light grey concrete instead of brown wood decking or green grass. It bounced up onto our white ceilings and lit up our kitchen and family room beautifully!

This is the back of the house showing the cocoa colors. · More Info

I should point out that we didn't screen. I should also say that in mid-summer the sun is higher overhead, so we got the preferred shade at that time of year, but it was never dark, always light!

Screening makes our screen room useable for most of the nicest months of the year when the mosquitos would make it otherwise unbearable-- we mostly use it in the evening. We did put the porch where it wouldn't impede light entering the house, so didn't face that dilemma. .

I like some overhang on the south side of the house but screening IMO is a must where bugs make outdoor living impossible so to get the light into the house the idea of a glass roof is a great way to do both.

We love our screened porch. same issue with the dark interier. we knew adding a roof to the porch would only make our dark kitchen darker. So we designed the porch roof with a skylight. It helped.

Either way, the screened porch was worth it.

@amuelle have you heard of these? You can have screens when you want and no screens when you don't want. I thought they sounded super cool! Look at the videos. 

https://www.phantomscreens.com/lp-retractable-window-screens/