The Convertible Solar Porch

 

By Coventry Design, LLC

Have you always wished that you could get more year-round use out of your existing covered porch but did not want to trade that wonderful, open-air feeling for a closed-in and expensive Sunroom? Have you considered the possibility of a porch that can easily convert from a screened porch to a Sunroom in just minutes? If so, then it is time you learned about the new convertible Solar Porch by Coventry Design, LLC.

Why is the Solar Porch different?

Typical enclosed porches, or Sunrooms use fixed screens or heavy windows that limit your enjoyment options and make maintenance difficult or impossible. However, both the screen and window units in the Coventry Solar Porch are lightweight, glide easily on tracks, and are completely removable.  They can be arranged in multiple configurations. Do you want windows, or just screens?  How about a combination of both? Or, would you prefer to have no screens, or windows at all? With the Coventry Solar Porch, you can have it all.

Each locking unit is custom-sized to match your existing covered porch, or to fit a porch that you are planning to build.

Cleaning is a easy! Forget about balancing on ladders or resigning yourself to staring at unreachable spider webs on the outside of your fixed screens. The removable screens and windows on the Coventry Solar Porch let you reach and maintain everything from the safety of your porch floor. Just slide them back, or remove them completely to reach everything safely.

You can convert your existing porch or specify the Coventry Solar Porch in your new house for only a fraction of the cost of an awkward, expensive, and limited use typical Sunroom. Coventry can recommend a trained installer. However, the Solar Porch system can also be installed by a homeowner as a great do-it-yourself project. The Solar Porch by Coventry Design permits multiple seasonal configurations. It is easy to install, easy to use, easy to maintain, and very easy on the budget.

Why is it called Solar?

Perhaps the most interesting and spectacular feature of the Solar Porch is its ability to serve as a solar furnace to heat your home. We have all heard about harnessing the free power of the sun to heat our homes. Often that requires expensive equipment, but the Solar Porch uses something called “passive solar heating.” Instead of expensive photovoltaic panels mounted on a roof, the Solar Porch itself captures the sunlight. To make it work, the only essential requirement is that the porch must have unblocked exposure to the Southern sky. During cold months, the Sun remains low in the Southern sky, so its rays strike the walls of a house more directly than during the Summer months. Typical windows are designed to repel sunlight, but the lightweight windows used in the Solar Porch let light in and trap the Sun’s heat inside the porch. Not only will that trapped heat make your porch warm, it can also be drawn into your home as a secondary source of Winter heating.  

The temperature of the trapped air can soar 50 degrees or more above the outside air temperature. By opening the doors between the Solar Porch and your home, the heated porch air can enter to supplement your heating system during the daylight hours. In optimal locations and configurations, we can connect a ceiling vent in the porch to the return on your HVAC system. By using just the fan setting on your heating system, you can direct the warm porch air to every corner of your home during cold yet sunny winter days.  Imagine letting the power of the sun heat your home during the day! Imagine the cost savings of heating your home? The Solar Porch will pay for itself quickly.

What happens to the heat in the summer?

During Summer, the sun is more directly overhead, so sunlight does not penetrate the Solar Porch as much as it does during the Winter months. However,  because the system can be easily converted, the lightweight windows can be removed to create a low-maintenance screened porch with 100% ventilation. Or, you can leave the windows in place and just slide one section open to provide 50% ventilation.

What happens if my porch does not face South?

In shaded, or non-South facing porches, the porch may be cooled, or heated with a standard heat-pump similar to the units used in hotels. This type of system permits the porch to be separated from the house so that the porch need  be climate controlled only when in use. After paying a lot of money for a typical Sunroom, you still have to pay again to heat the porch in Winter, then again to cool it in Summer. The Solar Porch works with Nature, not against it.

Essentially, that is what makes the Solar Porch so special. It can convert to a multitude of uses and purposes with ease. It is easy to install, user friendly, and low cost. The only question to ask now is, “How can I get a Solar Porch?”

To do that, please call Coventry Design at (336) 946-1410, or send us an e-mail to arrange for a viewing and demonstration of this amazing system.