We recently wrote about how a garden office is a comfortable space to spend time all year round. A key component of this is the inclusion of a heating source in the design. Like any room in your house, a garden office needs heating for the coldest days of the year.
In this article we will answer a frequently asked question “What types of heating can a garden office have?”. You’ll be surprised by the number of options you have.
Is heating included with all garden offices
Before we delve into the types of heating available in a garden office, we want to make you aware that heating is not a standard feature of all garden office designs. In the course of our work we read a lot of specification lists and are surprised to see that quite a few suppliers don’t offer heating in their standard specification and price.
There are often two reasons for this. It might be that they offer several different heating types and leave it to you the customer to decide which one will work best for you. They then add the cost of your heating choice to the quote they give you. The other reason they don’t include heating as standard is because they say their rooms are so well insulated its not required. We have worked from a highly insulated garden office for many years now, but have always been pleased to have a heater we can flick on on the coldest days of the year.
Standard garden office heating
There are three types of heating that are commonly offered as standard when buying a garden office, they are electric convector heaters, oil filled radiators and slimline electric panels.
Electric convector heaters are normally wall mounted and convect warm air around the room. They need to be left uncovered and have space around them. This type of heater can warm a room vey quickly, so is great when you need an instant boost of heat. Electric convector heaters normally have both a thermostat and timer fitted so you can control when the heating comes on and goes off and at what temperature.
Oil filled radiators are another common option when buying a garden office. These free standing units are on casters so you can move them about with ease. They have the look of an old fashioned radiator. Again these heaters are normally fitted with a timer so you can control when they come on and switch off and have a thermostat so you can control the temperature level.
There are some slimline electric panels which can be mounted on the wall. They heat up to a pre defined temperature and then radiate the heat around the room. These panels come in different sizes dependent on their output and the size of your garden office.
As we say these heating forms are commonly included in a garden office package as standard. If you find that your garden office doesn’t come with a heater they are also quite an easy and cost effective retro fit option.
Underfloor heating
Available as a standard feature in some higher spec garden office designs, underfloor heating is a desirable option. People like it because it offers maximum flexibility when positioning furniture and there is nothing breaking up the clean lines of the walls.
A mat underfloor heating system is used in a garden office rather than the hot water pipes you will often find used in a house. Like with other heating types underfloor heating is fitted with a timer and thermostat so you have maximum control over the temperature etc.
Air conditioning
Many garden office buyers like the idea of incorporating air conditioning into their new workspace. It offers you a year round solution as it can be used to warm the office in winter and cool it in summer.
With air conditioning you have one unit outside the building and another inside the office. All pipework is incorporated into the structure of your office, so its all quite neat.
Specifying air conditioning for a garden office is the most expensive of all the options we have looked at but will offer you year round control of the temperature which is an important consideration if you are working from the office full time.
Central heating is an option on bespoke designs
Its not common but we have seen examples where central heating has been incorporated into a garden office design. We have seen situations where a garden office has been sited relatively near to the main house and the plumbing run to the office from the main boiler system.
Recently we saw an example where a boiler had been installed in the garden room and radiators run off it. This system runs off LPG gas cylinders so is a good idea if you want the performance of central heating and your building is a long way down the garden. You are only going to get this type of heating with a bespoke garden office design.
What about a wood burner
We know many garden office buyers like the idea of incorporating a wood burner into their new room. Its not a feature you will see offered as standard by garden office suppliers as it needs to be fitted by a specialist supplier to Building Regulation standards.
If you work with a bespoke garden office designer they may well incorporate a wood burner into your design, but they will probably ask you to organise the installation with a local registered installer.