Sunroom Advantages

Heat

• A sunroom is designed to provide passive solar heating for a home, which can result in significant savings on heating costs. In order to be effective, the sunroom needs glass that faces south and is as much at right angles to the sun's rays as possible. The room also needs a dark thermal wall to store heat, and vents, which allow you to control the flow of warm air from the sunroom during the day and prevent cold air from coming into the house at night. According to the Green Building Primer from Williams College, setting up a sunroom this way provides an advantage by helping the home maintain a comfortable temperature around the clock.

Space

• Adding a sunroom to your home is a relatively easy way to add extra space. According to AllSunrooms.com, sunrooms are considerably less expensive than standard construction. By adding a sunroom to your home instead of paying for more traditional "brick and mortar" construction, you gain the most space possible for the money. There are also do-it-yourself sunroom kits available, which can stretch your money even farther; when you don't have to pay labor expenses, you can get a much larger room than you would otherwise. The space can be used as a den, as a plant room, a guest room or as a play room for your children.

Added Value

• Adding a sunroom to your home can increase its value. It adds space and beauty, both of which will make your home worth more. How much value a sunroom adds depends on many factors, such as where you live, the value of other homes in the neighborhood, and how well the sunroom goes with the rest of the house. According to House Logic, an information site by the National Association of Realtors, the return on investment will be about 51%. In other words, if you build a sunroom for $30,000, you can expect it to add about $15,300 to the value of your house. This amount will be somewhat higher in warm, sunny climates such as the southeast, and a little lower in colder areas like Michigan and Minnesota.