radiator Reflectors

sjp1966

I understand that you can purchase radiator reflectors to save money on heating bills, there seems to be a large number of manufacturers of this stuff, can anyone advise me of a good quality brand please.

ado

I've just bought Radflek reflectors. They were easy to fit and seem to make a difference to the house but I can't quantify exactly what the change is.

Cardew

There has been a lot of discussion about these on MSE over the years.

IMO and others, they don't save anything at all - others disagree, but nobody can produce test results.

However this subject was raised with the Energy Saving trust(EST) and the following post from another thread might be of interest.

The question of savings with these foil panels was raised with the Energy Saving Trust in this thread: (only read the first couple of pages)


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2867980energy+saving+t
rust


Essentially the EST stated:


Radiator reflector panels do generate a small saving. In a typical 3 bedroom semi detached gas heated home they can save around £6 and 30kg CO2 a year if professionally installed, whereas DIY installation would save around £3.50 and 18kg CO2 a year. Individually radiator panel reflectors save on average around £1 and 6kg CO2 per radiator as a DIY installation.


We calculate these savings by collating a number of sources. We use the CERT Technical Guidance to derive the average radiator panel saving
from the two different installation types; we then apply average number of
radiators for each house type which is sourced from the Building
Research Establishment’s ‘Standard Dwellings for Energy Modelling’ (not publically available).

We then applied our own calculated average prices sourced from
Ofgem data (not publically available) and DEFRA’s GHG Conversion Factors to get financial and CO2 savings.

However when challenged the EST admitted that they had misread the CERT
guidance and that those annual savings(i.e. £6 or £3.50 for a whole house) only
applied to houses with solid walls i.e. without cavity walls.









A reduction in carbon emissions can only be awarded for the installation of radiator panels when they are fitted to external walls.


Furthermore, research by the BRE indicates that an improvement in energy efficiency from an installation of
radiator panels is minimal if the radiator is fitted on a wall with a filled cavity. Therefore, radiator panels should be installed on either solid walls or walls with unfilled cavities.


So EST have conceded that foil behind radiators in a house with insulated cavity walls hardly saves anything - perhaps a few pence per year.

HappyMJ

Cardew wrote: »

There has been a lot of discussion about these on MSE over the years.

IMO and others, they don't save anything at all - others disagree, but nobody can produce test results.

However this subject was raised with the Energy Saving trust(EST) and the following post from another thread might be of interest.

The Radflek site does have the test results from BRE. It's very cryptic but they do save a small amount. If I did have one it would save me 10.87W per square metre of reflector. They have used 11 hours per day and a 30 week heating season to calculate the annual savings and an average outdoor temperature of 6 degrees to come to 25.1kWh per year. At a unit rate of 3.5p/kWh and 75% efficency this could save £1.17 per year for 2310 hours of heating...it's about 0.05 of a penny per hour.....but then I don't have my heating on for 11 hours each day (which is basically 24/7 with the thermostat switching it off and on) and I don't have the heating on for 30 weeks and the room temperature is not set at 21 degrees....so...I estimate it would save me about 30 pence per year.

Cardew

HappyMJ wrote: »

The Radflek site does have the test results from BBE. It's very cryptic but they do save a small amount. If I did have one it would save me 10.87W per square metre of reflector. They have used 11 hours per day and a 30 week heating season to calculate the annual savings and an average outdoor temperature of 6 degrees to come to 25.1kWh per year. At a unit rate of 3.5p/kWh and 75% efficency this could save £1.17 per year for 2310 hours of heating...it's about 0.05 of a penny per hour.....but then I don't have my heating on for 11 hours each day (which is basically 24/7 with the thermostat switching it off and on) and I don't have the heating on for 30 weeks and the room temperature is not set at 21 degrees....so...I estimate it would save me about 30 pence per year.

BBE or BRE?

Is not that huge saving(of 30 pence a year) for a non cavity wall?

grahamc2003

sjp1966 wrote: »

I understand that you can purchase radiator reflectors to save money on heating bills, there seems to be a large number of manufacturers of this stuff, can anyone advise me of a good quality brand please.

About 25 years ago I made one for each of several storage heaters I was putting in. It's bluepeter stuff really
- cut some cardboard to the size you want
- wrap it in aluminium foil
- stick behind radiators on external walls.
- don't expect to notice any saving in your fuel bill - it'll be a couple of pounds per year typically.

Similar savings can be made by painting the wall behind the rad white (by reflecting the radiant heat), or matt black (by emitting radiant heat), but the cardboard method adds a bit of extra insulation as well as reflecting back the heat.

HappyMJ

Cardew wrote: »

BBE or BRE?

Is not that huge saving(of 30 pence a year) for a non cavity wall?

Yes them too...BRE..typo. Was thinking BBA then changed it. 30 pence a year is for my non insulated cavity wall. It's a bit more for solid walls. The best saving being 33.08W/sqm for the worst walls. About £0.0015 per hour. 650 hours of heating to save £1.

grahamc2003

PM60 wrote: »

I've been looking around for some rad panels and I heard somewhere about magnetic ones.. I've come on here to find them, does anyone know of magnetic panels?

Anything in contact with the back of the radiator would conduct heat away from it and radiate from the other side of it onto the wall - the exact opposite of what's required!

For these things to work at all and gain the very small benefit, the reflectors have to be mounted onto the wall and not in contact with the radiator.

As it happens, we visited Lidl last night, and they had radiator reflector material for £4 for about 10m iirc. A that price, if you diy, then the payback would be a year I expect ime, - certainly either buy some cheap material or make your own from cardboard and bacofoil - there's no advantage at all in any expensive 'branded' material - and if they stick to the back of the rads with magnets, then there are disadvantages!

Edit - nice edit btw, much less spammy than the original, where your friend had fitted a named type and, of course, was very happy with them. How much are the brand your friend recommended?