Three Season Sunroom - A Sunspace For Your Home

One question which needs to be answered before purchasing a sunroom is whether the new home addition is to be a three season sunroom or a four season sun room. The answer to this question is what are your expectations and needs for the sunroom.

The three season sun room is classed as recreational outdoor living space and is seperated from the living space with a wall. There are many different types of these types of sun rooms, some available as kits, others as ready built structures.

A three season sun room is basically an enclosed porch which help make a transition from the out of doors to the indoor environment of the home. It would not be open to the living space, nor heated by the heating system of the dwelling.

There are a couple of different types of three season sunrooms - the screened porch and glazed enclosures which can have the windows either slid or removed to reveal screened openings. The screened porch enclosures will have the most limited use - only during the warmest months of the year. They offer protection from sun and insects, not from temperatures. These are the most economical additions to construct, They can be wonderful places to spend warm summer evenings, watching the world go by as you enjoy a cold drink. The best thing is, the mosquitos can't get to you!

Glazed units usually feature moveable glazing. The screened openings then offer all the advantages of the screened porch. In cold weather the glazing can be moved into place, offering winter time use and a much extended season of use. These sunrooms are more expensive than a simple screen porch, but offer a vastly longer season of use.

The usability of a three season sun room is determined by the geographic location of your home. People living in the extreme southern lattitudes may very well get four seasons of use out of a three season sun room. Extreme northeren locations may be lucky to get three or four months use.

Three season sunrooms tend to be much cheaper to construct than four season sunspaces. And, since they are cut off from the home climate control, they can usually double as screen porches in the summer. If you live in a rural area and like the nightime sounds of chirping tree frogs, whip-poor- wills and other nocturnal sounds, a 3 season sun porch may be what you are looking for. These, if equipped with either single or double glazing can still see some use in all but the most extreme days of mid-winter. And a sunny winter day will still have temperatures warm enough to sit and enjoy the outdoor veiws around your home.

A glazed three season sunroom would be an energy saver for a home, as sunny days in the winter any windows or doors which connect the porch to the home could be opened and the heat from the solar gain directed into the home with a fan. At night, when the sun goes down, the doors or windows of the sun porch are closed. The sunroom then serves as a sort of buffer between the cold outside air and the heated inside air of the home, helping to conserve valuable heat.