Are all radiators equal?!

Benzanna

Good morning!

I currently rent a house built in 1820. It has suspended flooring, damp and is generally freezing!

We had someone come to do a damp survey recently and they pointed out the radiators are part of the damp problem; they don't emit enough BTU to heat the rooms. Currently they emit about 5000 and we need a minimum of 12000!

Anyway, the landlady is actually getting the radiators replaced.

When buying new radiators, is there a difference in terms of efficiency? obviously a double will be better than a single, but can one double convector radiator be better/more efficient than another?

I'd massively appreciate your advice!

Thanks in advance.

matelodave

In the end a bigger radiator will emit more heat than a small one, a double panel would emit even more and adding fins should be even better.

However they can only emit as much heat as they are delivered with so if the boiler is under rated, the flow temperatures are too low or there's crud in the plumbing restricting the flow then you won't get their rated output.

A heating system has to be designed as a whole and set up properly - just bunging on a bigger rad might do the trick but might actually cause problems somewhere else if the boiler is undersized as it could extract all the heat out of the water leaving other rads underpowered.

Benzanna

matelodave wrote: »

In the end a bigger radiator will emit more heat than a small one, a double panel would emit even more and adding fins should be even better.

However they can only emit as much heat as they are delivered with so if the boiler is under rated, the flow temperatures are too low or there's crud in the plumbing restricting the flow then you won't get their rated output.

A heating system has to be designed as a whole and set up properly - just bunging on a bigger rad might do the trick but might actually cause problems somewhere else if the boiler is undersized as it could extract all the heat out of the water leaving other rads underpowered.

Thanks! hopefully won't have this problem as we have a pretty good combi boiler system.

Richie-from-the-Boro

1820's, I hope all the pipework and the boiler can cope with the needs of the radiator bore which would have been 1.1 inch, modern pipework @ 15mm on a reducer is a half of that which would explain cold rads even with a megga boiler.