How to Make Water Filled Central Heating Radiators More Efficient
According to the statisticians it has been the coldest start to winter for 30 years. To add insult to injury energy prices are rising at the speed of light. The credit crunch is starting to bite and many people are now having substantial financial problems. There is nothing worse to bring this abject misery home than having to sit in bitterly cold room wearing a woolly hat and scarf. Luckily, I know of an inexpensive method of making water filled central heating radiators more efficient. It might save you a few pence and if nothing else taking part in the project will keep you warm for a couple of hours.
There is an easy and inexpensive way to make water filled central heating radiators more efficient. In most scenarios large amounts of valuable heat is lost directly into the wall. This heat loss can be quite considerable and will increase with radiators fitted to outside walls. Walls that have not been insulated will lose more heat than insulated walls. Cavity wall insulation can make a huge difference to the overall warmth of a building. Many older buildings were constructed without cavity walls and therefore can not benefit from this simple modification. If your walls suffer from rising or penetrating damp this will allow for a much higher percentage of heat loss. The most obvious solution is to fix any water drainage problems such as broken roof tiles, guttering, down pipes etc. Rising damp can usually be rectified by adding a new damp course. These defects need to be assessed by a qualified person before any work is carried out. Home improvement, although an interesting subject is not really what this article is about.
To prevent radiator heat being lost into the wall add a reflective material behind the radiator. The reflective material will send heat back into the room. Most Do-it-Yourself (DIY) stores sell rolls of reflective foil with polystyrene backing for this purpose. The radiator foil is not particularly expensive and can be fitted using a strong mix of wallpaper paste. It is easier to apply when the radiator is not fitted to the wall. In most cases the radiator will be fitted to the wall and it is not worth removing them to add the reflective foil. This just makes the job a little bit more difficult but by using a batten that slides behind the radiator it can be accomplished.
There is an even less expensive, less difficult yet equally efficient method available. It is possible to use aluminium kitchen foil in place of the more expensive reflective foil /polystyrene rolls. The only problem is finding a way to attach the foil to the wall behind the radiator. Assuming that you do not wish to remove the radiators from the wall, I have found a way to do this easily. One way to approach this is to attach the foil to a large sheet of cardboard. Cut slots in the cardboard so that they correspond with the wall brackets and the cardboard should fit neatly behind the radiator. Place the cardboard on the floor and unroll the aluminium foil over the cardboard with the shiny reflective side facing upwards. Use an appropriate adhesive tape (clear parcel tape) to hold each piece in place. Allow a small amount of overlap if more than one width of foil is required.
In addition, a heat retaining shelf can be incorporated into the design. This is merely an additional piece of foil backed cardboard that fits just above the radiator to help project the heat into the room. To achieve this simple make the cardboard larger than it needs to be and fold a section to 90 degrees. It may not look very elegant but with some creativity it can be decorated to match the existing colour scheme. If you have children (or grand children) available they probably will not need too much encouragement to decorate it! To ensure that the foil backed cardboard sheet sits against the wall, insert cardboard toilet roll or kitchen roll tubes into the gap at each end. That’s all there is to this simple method of making water-filled central heating radiators more efficient. Also, it is possible to make inexpensive draft-excluder to reduce unwanted drafts and therefore retain more heat.
If there is a large gap below the door use a strip of cardboard folded in half. When the cardboard strip is in place it will naturally try to unfold and fill the gap. Nothing could be more simple than that!
Thanks for visiting my Wholefruit website - keep warm!
Marvin Africa
There is an easy and inexpensive way to make water filled central heating radiators more efficient. In most scenarios large amounts of valuable heat is lost directly into the wall. This heat loss can be quite considerable and will increase with radiators fitted to outside walls. Walls that have not been insulated will lose more heat than insulated walls. Cavity wall insulation can make a huge difference to the overall warmth of a building. Many older buildings were constructed without cavity walls and therefore can not benefit from this simple modification. If your walls suffer from rising or penetrating damp this will allow for a much higher percentage of heat loss. The most obvious solution is to fix any water drainage problems such as broken roof tiles, guttering, down pipes etc. Rising damp can usually be rectified by adding a new damp course. These defects need to be assessed by a qualified person before any work is carried out. Home improvement, although an interesting subject is not really what this article is about.
To prevent radiator heat being lost into the wall add a reflective material behind the radiator. The reflective material will send heat back into the room. Most Do-it-Yourself (DIY) stores sell rolls of reflective foil with polystyrene backing for this purpose. The radiator foil is not particularly expensive and can be fitted using a strong mix of wallpaper paste. It is easier to apply when the radiator is not fitted to the wall. In most cases the radiator will be fitted to the wall and it is not worth removing them to add the reflective foil. This just makes the job a little bit more difficult but by using a batten that slides behind the radiator it can be accomplished.
There is an even less expensive, less difficult yet equally efficient method available. It is possible to use aluminium kitchen foil in place of the more expensive reflective foil /polystyrene rolls. The only problem is finding a way to attach the foil to the wall behind the radiator. Assuming that you do not wish to remove the radiators from the wall, I have found a way to do this easily. One way to approach this is to attach the foil to a large sheet of cardboard. Cut slots in the cardboard so that they correspond with the wall brackets and the cardboard should fit neatly behind the radiator. Place the cardboard on the floor and unroll the aluminium foil over the cardboard with the shiny reflective side facing upwards. Use an appropriate adhesive tape (clear parcel tape) to hold each piece in place. Allow a small amount of overlap if more than one width of foil is required.
In addition, a heat retaining shelf can be incorporated into the design. This is merely an additional piece of foil backed cardboard that fits just above the radiator to help project the heat into the room. To achieve this simple make the cardboard larger than it needs to be and fold a section to 90 degrees. It may not look very elegant but with some creativity it can be decorated to match the existing colour scheme. If you have children (or grand children) available they probably will not need too much encouragement to decorate it! To ensure that the foil backed cardboard sheet sits against the wall, insert cardboard toilet roll or kitchen roll tubes into the gap at each end. That’s all there is to this simple method of making water-filled central heating radiators more efficient. Also, it is possible to make inexpensive draft-excluder to reduce unwanted drafts and therefore retain more heat.
If there is a large gap below the door use a strip of cardboard folded in half. When the cardboard strip is in place it will naturally try to unfold and fill the gap. Nothing could be more simple than that!
Thanks for visiting my Wholefruit website - keep warm!
Marvin Africa
Labels: Efficient Radiators
posted by Marvin Africa at
13:35
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