Foil heat reflectors for radiators

Primrose

Can somebody please advise the best way of fitting this to improve heat reflection. How do you fix it to the wall, or is attached somehow to the back of the radiator?
And where is the best place to buy bulk cheap aluminium foil for this purpose? Thanks.

fertyskids

Hi primrose, like you i would love to know more about how to do this.

thanks Fertyskids

bizzylizzy

I first cut some cardboard, from large boxes, to the right size to fit behind the radiator and then covered it with some value tinfoil (from Asda). I only covered one side and stuck it with sellotape. Then 'posted' it down behind the radiator, foil side towards the room.
I used what I had in the house as money was almost non-existent!
I expect there are other ways to do it though...

fertyskids

Thankyou Bizzylizzy... should have thought of that myself...........

thanks again Fertyskids

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

I did some research on this last year on the 'In My Home' board I think. I ended up not sure if it was worthwhile or not. I wasn't sure which glues could cope with heat without being harmful to humans or animals. What swung it for me though was the awkwardness of physically getting foil onto cardboard and then getting it stuck to the wall behind the radiator without any showing. I know foil can be bought on a foam backing especially for the job but it still seems a fiddly task though. Maybe I'm just not very good at DIY...
Sorry to be so negative. If someone can give me an idiots guide, I'd be very grateful as it's still something I'd like to do.

Hi busylizzi, we must have been writing at the same time! Didn't think of sellotape. Great idea!

Penelope_Penguin

Primrose wrote: »

Can somebody please advise the best way of fitting this to improve heat reflection. How do you fix it to the wall, or is attached somehow to the back of the radiator?
And where is the best place to buy bulk cheap aluminium foil for this purpose? Thanks.

Hi there :beer: I did a Forum search, and there are a couple of similar threads in the In My Home board. The most recent is Foil heat reflectors for radiators.

I'll move this thread, and it may be merged

andrew-b

You could try wallpaper paste? Can't vouch for this but i'm sure i've heard of it somewhere before. If you do it i'd only bother with rads on external walls though as losing heat through internal walls to other rooms isn't really a problem.

Screwfix sell radiator reflector foil See here

Andy

LMCD

tesco do an aisle that is dedicated to energy saving, or at least they did and inside there is instruction to fitting it, i bought mine a while ago, and its not done much use sitting in a cupboard lol but ive just checked it and will probably this time next week install it as it would save money with winter hitting hard like it is in Scotland!

dander

The official radiator foil stuff isn't particularly expensive and usually comes with sticky strips already there, so you just peel off the backing and stick to the wall.

Primrose

The other idea I was thinking of, which doesn't involve having to stick anything to the wall, was to cover cardboard with aluminium foil, cut two or three small holes in the top of the covered cardboard and tie the cardboard to long bamboo canes with a piece of string.
Perhaps then I could simply slot the whole mechanism down behind the radiators, leaving the long bamboo cane close to the wall resting on the radiator support brackets.
We've also got a couple of spare foil reflective shields which you unfold and put in your car windscreen on hot days to keep the car cool. I suppose these could serve a simlar purpose with smaller radiators?