Sunny Spaces Newest Designs For Sun Rooms Give More Control Over Light Allowed In

They aren’t just glass boxes anymore.

And they only let in the sunshine when you want it.

They’re sun rooms. If you buy one, you don’t have to get burned financially or from too much sun.

If you haven’t seen a sun room in years, it’s time to take another look.

Sure, some of those glass boxes are still around. But the variety of styles and technical advancements in sun rooms have made them a room for all seasons.

First, let’s define sun room.

“It’s a word that really encompasses three types of rooms,” according to Patti Cohen, owner of Lifestyles by Patio Masters in Anaheim Hills, Calif.

“For instance, we offer three basic types of sun rooms,” she said. “One is a garden room, the other what people might call a solarium, and then there’s the patio enclosure.”

Cohen said a garden room might include 95 percent glass on at least three sides. The glass might extend from the ceiling to the foundation.

A solarium can be all glass, including the ceiling, in which the glass is curved from the ceiling to the outer wall.

A patio enclosure usually has a small wall along the bottom, with walls at both ends, glass facing out and a regular roof.

Sun room dealers have different names for these and other styles, but they all come under the heading of sun room.

In some sun rooms, particularly those built at least seven or eight years ago, letting in sun proved to be as much of a problem as it was a joy. Those glass boxes could really heat up on a hot day in the summer, particularly if they were facing west.

It was important to consider putting a sun room on a house facing any direction but west.

These days, it’s possible to install a sun room on a home facing any direction.

“We’ve got so many ways to filter out or cut down on occasional harsh sunlight from coming in that it really doesn’t make that much difference which way the room faces,” said David Donnelly, a spokesman for Four Seasons Sunrooms in Fullerton, Calif.

But it can make a difference in which options to consider. For instance, if your home’s back yard faces due west, you may want to have shades installed in the framing members of the sun room.

In most sun rooms, these are motorized or manually operated on tracks between the ceiling joists. At the touch of a button or pulled manually, they slide down to the desired height.

Many sun-room manufacturers now boast of dual-pane windows, several with argon gas between the panes. The effect is lower temperature buildup during the hot summer months and maintenance of a higher temperature during the winter.

So what does this all cost? Most prices start around $8,000 - installed and a foundation built - for a basic sun room.

Sun room dealers may be found in the Yellow Pages under - what else? - sun rooms.