My wife always wanted a gazebo so she had one built in 2009. It's made completely out of Cedar and is 10'x10'. Well, me thinking ahead and all decided to protect the inside as it got cooler. I had a roll of industrial plastic my neighbor gave me and put that on tight against the screen to keep out the cool rains of late Fall and early Spring and to keep the snow out of it. On day in the winter I went out there to get something and was shocked at how warm it is inside on a sunny day! Needless to say I do this every Fall and try and sit out there for a couple of hours every weekend if it's nice. It can be well below the freezing point outside but inside it's room temperature and I can sit in a lawn chair in my tshirt and do a couple of crossword puzzles while listening to the radio. It makes me feel like I do during the Summer and is really good for the soul during our long torturous Winter. So my question is, does anyone else have a "Florida Room" that they make for the Winter?
That's a good name too. I love the heat and my days of snowmobiling and ice fishing are well behind me so to have a brief taste of summer in the winter is great. Maybe that's why I have it mid-seventies and higher inside the house in the winter.
I've been thinking about something similar on the back of the house here. I'd like a four season room but the back of our house is facing north and we are looking right into a pretty steep mountain. So the sun isn't great and the sunsets are very early for us. House is shaded by 3pm. If I get to do it, it would get a wood stove for sure
I built a 12X12 screen porch on the south side of the cottage with 4' patio door screens. It is totally non-insulated. I have wrapped the outside (screens only) every year since building it to save the screens from the snow, wind, rain, etc. As you said, the thermal gain during a sunny day is great. I have opened the patio door which leads to the screen porch on the days I visit the cottage during the winter just to allow some of the heat to enter the cottage.....which by the way has been as cool as -10f upon my arrival. That's the inside temp of the cottage now! The outside is colder, of course! But in the late days of fall (now) and the late days of spring, it is always refreshing to just open the sliding door and let the plastic wrapped screen porch heat enter into the cottage....or, to just sit out there and wonder what it is you just saw blurring past the screens!
Or put in a small space heater - you would only have to keep it around 50 at night after the seeds have germinated (and those could be put on a heat mat until germinated). I had a 8x10 collapsible plastic greenhouse (not rigid) that I could easily keep warm during the night from Early March until ready to plant June 1 - did that for 10 years or so after our rigid greenhouse collapsed.
I like that a lot. I would have a small Jotul 602 in there and use it as a sauna in the winter. Maybe some rocks on the stove and a water dipper for some steam.
