Difficulty heating bedrooms, will double radiators help?

Dofe

Hi all,

I live in a 3 bedroom terrace house built around the 70's. This is my 2nd winter in it however I've noticed that the 2 bigger bedrooms never seem to heat up. One bedroom is approx 11' 3'' by 12' with a single panel radiator measuring 80cm by 60cm. The other main bedroom is 8' 5'' by 10' 9'' with a 65cm by 60cm single panel radiator. The whole house is double glazed and the downstairs heats well. The 2 main bedrooms also suffer from damp. The radiators heat well, they get as hot as any other radiator in the house its just the rooms never seem to warm. I also have a small box room of 8' 6'' by 8' with a 60cm by 60cm radiator and it gets nice and cosy however the hotpress is also in that room. The attic upstairs was renovated before I bought the house, its been carpeted and we use it for storage. With the radiators being quite small for the room size, would putting double radiators in the two bedrooms help the problem? If so is this something a 29 year old woman could do herself if not any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Tucker

I am no plumber, just a DIYer, but the single radiator 80x60cm sounds small for the size of room.

You can do a heat output calc on line which will tell you how many BTU's the rad you need is for the room size.

Could you do it yourself? Depends if you feel confident about draining the system, altering the pipework if needed etc....

If not, get some quotes for the work.

Imp

Double radiators will approximately double the heat going into the room. Now all you have to do is stop the heat from getting out.

As it is an upstairs room, you could try loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, double glazing, draft proofing etc. etc. I've just checked the single and double radiators in my house, and the pipework is further from the wall for the double radiators. This means you won't be able to do a straight swap, but will have to fiddle around with the pipe work to get it to fit - might be best getting a plumber in to do the change.

27col

Without doing any calculations the sizes you quote do not seem very large. Modern rads of the same size with fins on the back do have quite a lot larger heat output than the old single rads. There is almost always a bit of movement available in the pipes so that problem might not be insuperable. As has been mentioned, make sure that the roof insulation is at or near the recommended level.

gas4you

I've just done a quick calculation making some basic assumptions and it would seem that a double radiator would be about right for your rooms.

However, most radiators come in standard metric sizes these days, 600, 700, 800 long, so your 65cm one may need to have a 600 fitted with extensions each end.

The other small, but awkward point to bear in mind when replacing a single with a double, is that the pipe inlet for the rad valves will be further out from the wall.

This can cause extra fitting problems or look unsightly if just forced to fit.

allan673

for both bedrooms i would fit 1000 wide by 500 high double radiators. and put thermostatic radiator valves on too so you can control the temperature of the room.

the rads are around £70 at b and q. made by kudox - you may get them cheaper at screwfix? trvs are around £6 to £10 each.

to be honest i would get a plumber to fit the new rads, as they are wider the tails will need altering to suite the new rad.tails are the pipes coming from the floorboards into the rads.

expect to pay £50 per rad fitting. thats the going rate here anyway.

hope this helps???

Dofe

Thanks everyone some really good advise there. Think I will abandon the idea of me doing it myself otherwise it could be a like a scene from 'The Perfect Storm'....

Thanks for your help!

dander

I find the double radiators in my house really pump out heat - I've had to turn the trvs right down so those rooms don't overheat. However, the double radiators are quite bulky and I think in a smaller room I'd personally be more inclined towards having a larger more slimline single radiator rather than a smaller but chunky double. Just personal preference of course, but worth being sure you are making the right choice for you first time round.

vanilla

Our bedroom and bathroom have always been hard to heat. We put an electric heater into the bedroom this winter it was that cold. We changed the rediators from single to double this week and the difference is amazing. Only wish i had done it sooner.

keystone

If the rads are only hot at the top but cold(ish) at the bottom they are sludged and working well below efficiency and the system needs a clean. No this is NOT an invitation for every engineer driving a dark blue van to turn up on the doorstep and diagnose the need for a PowerFlush.

Seriously if this is the case your rooms are bound to be cold. I'd check that out first before embarking on a replace programme.

Cheers

Daz2009

I'd seriously check your loft insulation 1st.If the attic has been boarded out there may not be any insulation at all and you will lose a hell of a lot of heat that way.
How cold is your loft compared to the bedroooms ?