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FEBRUARY 2023 HOME 5 Sunroom From Page 4 have any chance of captur- ing solar heating for your house, it must be on the south or southwest side of your house. If your only location is the east or the north side, forget about using it for heating. It will likely require supplemental heating to be useable dur- ing winter. Other key factors to con- sider for sunroom used for heating are adequate solar thermal mass and a way to move the extra heat into your house. Thermal mass can come from stone or brick sides or flooring and often barrels filled with water. Without adequate thermal mass, the sunroom will quickly overheat in the afternoon and quickly cool often in the evening. Add two groups of fans. One group is used to force the solar heated air into the house during winter. The other group, spaced near the roof, is used to ventilate the excess heat during sum- mer. If the entire side of sunroom is open to inside the house, heated air will circulate in naturally. I pre- fer installing sliding glass doors between the house and sunroom. Knowing the planning basics, building one your- self using standard lumber is the lowest cost option. It also provides more design flexibility to meet your spe- cific needs and house. You may even decide to create an atypical, unique design which is not even rectangu- lar. As with most projects, select dimensions in 4-foot and 8-foot sizes to better uti- lize standard lumber and material sizes. Also, before starting the project, visit local window installers and builder suppliers. They may have large windows, which someone has returned, at a significant price discount. For year-round use and to gain heat from the sun- room, use double- or triple- pane windows. If, due to poor sun orientation or other factors, you realize you cannot use the sun- room for solar heating, lower-cost single-pane win- dows are fine. This will cre- ate a three-season (spring, summer, fall) sunroom. A lean-to design with a sloped front is the simplest to build and captures more solar heat. This design also uses less lumber and roof- ing materials, but it is more difficult to ventilate and to add shading. There may be an overheating problem during summer. Dear Jim: We have a wood-burning fireplace that we seldom use because it does not draw well and the room smells smoky. The chimney has a smoke shelf. Does that help or just impede the smoke path? — Randy H. Dear Randy: The pur- pose of a smoke shelf is to improve the draft of the fireplace so that your room does not get smoky. Basical- ly, cool outdoor air flows down the chimney, hits the smoke shelf, mixes with the warm smoky air and flows back up and out. This draws out the smoke. Make sure there is ade- quate combustion air for the fireplace by opening a window slightly. Also, the draft will be stronger on very cold days. (Send inquiries to James Dulley, Conley Media, 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincin- nati, OH 45244 or visit www.dulley.com.) James Dulley This do-it-yourself sunroom is designed around recycled storm windows and doors. Notice the windows near the peak and the roof vent to avoid summertime overheating.