Anyone with a old house as cold as me? brrr

datostar

ronaldmacdonald wrote: »

1380?! :eek: What is that? mud walls and a straw roof?

Burn logs in the centre of the earth floor. Smoke will exit via the hole in the roof. Bring in the cattle at night for animal warmth.

andrew-b

Whacked some figures into a heatloss calculator (these are for the bedroom)

If it is 9inch external walls (double layer brick plus plaster) and based on 100mm of loft insulation and ignoring heat loss/gain to adjacent rooms for a comfortable 18C (-3C outside) you'd need radiators with a heat output of 1406Watts (4797BTU).
A stelrad elite K2 (2 convector) panel rad of the size you've got has an output of 1268W (4327BTU).... 132W (470BTU) short.
A 450x1000mm would be just about big enough..but this is at 18C...19C you need 1570Watts (5357BTU) and then you'd need a 450x1400mm K2 rad to get close to 19C.

By that data i reckon the maximum temperature you can get in that room with the radiator you have is 16C.

Haven't accounted for heat loss to say the landing or room below.

Anyway this is all based on one heatloss calculator (stelrad stars) and assumes the radiator pipework is sufficiently sized along with the boiler.

My thinking is the plumber has been a bit optimistic on his radiator sizing if that room is anything to go by.

lauren1983

Thank you very much for your calculations
Yes the walls are 9"

I have been intouch with the plumber. He said i dont need bigger radiators and says he has never been wrong before. He said he would have a look when he comes back next time ( i asked him to price to fit a toilet and sink for us) .That could be months away and i cant start fitting new carpets because they would be messed up when/if i get different radiators . Im tempted to just get another plumber to put us bigger ones in to save the hassle but we have just paid to have all of this done ! Oooo what to do ?? Any suggestions ?? How do i tell a plumber hes wrong ??

lauren1983

andrew-b, is there a way i could do what you have done for the rest of my rooms??

The radiators i have are stelrad, plumber says they are good ones so thats one good thing i suppose

andrew-b

Yep...

http://www.stelrad.com/UK/stars.html ..doesn't take too long to learn to drive it...but way quicker than pen and paper and calculator!

You can put in data for the whole house..strange shaped rooms too..even with diagonal walls etc.

Don't know how much loft insulation you have i assumed tops of joist = 100mm...the recommended amount is 270mm so that will make a fair difference in the calculation.
I assumed uPVC double glazing too i think.

andrew-b

Are all your rads 450mm high one's? Most of ours are 700mm high (stelrad elites). If need be you could swap 450 rads for 600 or 700mm high ones of same width - same pipework but different brackets...but it seems wasteful chucking what you've already got.

I suspect your plumber will tell you where to go if you tell him his wrong though!

Bigger /more rads though = a bigger heating bill. Alternative might be to look into insulation for your solid walls ..walls battened out on the inside, insulation, plasterboard. Though you'll probably then need pipework alterations too for rads on external walls as all your rooms will be come a little smaller!

lauren1983

Thanks andrew, Yes i suspect he will tell me to get stuffed if i bug him anymore. Especialy near christmas.

Yep also i had not thought about bigger rads bigger bills! Think i should of bought a new build, lots of insulation there :rolleyes:

Well i shall have ago with the calculator 2moro n see if i dare ring the plumber again. Makes it worse because im also a tradeoerson so when i know what its like to get an awkward customer

Yep most of my rads are 450mm due to the height of the window sills maybe why ive ended up with ones that r too small, hes tried fitting them under the windows like i asked

Anyway im off to bed with my waterbottles hehe

Thanks again for eveyones advice and help

themanbearpig

Just tell him what size you want them changed to, and ask him for quote. Repeat for several other plumbers. Whats the problem? Its not like he will change it free of charge even if he agrees its too small.

AGBAGB

As a temporary measure, try a fan blowing under the radiator. This should extract more heat from the rad than purely thermal convection.

Also if the room is empty all the radiated heat is going straight to walls. So you won't feel the benefit.

Double check on the drafts as well, a small draft from outside can be a lot worse than a lack of insulation. Don't confuse drafts with internal convection though.

beetlebum_2

When my Mum recently moved into a 1930's property with solid 200mm thick concrete block walls I did the following:

Stud out all the external walls, fill with 60mm Celotex and plasterboard. As I was renewing all the rads too, this also enabled me to hide the pipework too. Then I made use of the NPower £1 loft insulation deal and put 27 rolls in the loft.... so ended up with 270mm on top of the existing 50mm.

The cost of the wood, plasterboard and Celotex insulation probably cost me £200 ish. There were other associated costs, like altering the pipework and extending the electric cables etc. Obviously it was quite labour intensive as I'm not a professional. But having done this, the place now warms up really quickly and retains the heat brilliantly.