The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Doozergirl

The most efficient radiator is probably a double panel-double convector radiator. Looks the same as a regular one but afaik, developers don't use the double-double rads so it should be an improvement.

You could also upgrade the other radiators to same dimensioned double-doubles to compensate without playing with pipework. Best place for that if all doors lead onto it! If you get some shelving made bespoke then you can build over it and still use the space above that and even over the doors! Would look brilliant

Vertical rads don't use less space, just different space and unless you spend a lot of money, you just won't get the BTUs from them.

edit: cross posted so deleted my bit about insulation! I do think the most efficient option would be to fit bespoke shelves so you get more books rather than re-use existing shelves and make do. Depends on what dad prioritises, I guess!

vivatifosi

I was wondering about one of those mesh underfloor systems. If you were designing from scratch you may not choose it, but given that it's a hallway and not the whole house, could work without too much disruption. I'm thinking if something like this:

http://rayotec.com/electric-underfloor-heating?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9PmdxKXv1QIVirftCh0_KwC1EAAYASAAEgLbTPD_BwE

Probably worth doozer advising though.

LydiaJ

Doozergirl wrote: »

The most efficient radiator is probably a double panel-double convector radiator. Looks the same as a regular one but afaik, developers don't use the double-double rads so it should be an improvement.

You could also upgrade the other radiators to same dimensioned double-doubles to compensate without playing with pipework. Best place for that if all doors lead onto it! If you get some shelving made bespoke then you can build over it and still use the space above that and even over the doors! Would look brilliant

Vertical rads don't use less space, just different space and unless you spend a lot of money, you just won't get the BTUs from them.

edit: cross posted so deleted my bit about insulation! I do think the most efficient option would be to fit bespoke shelves so you get more books rather than re-use existing shelves and make do. Depends on what dad prioritises, I guess!

Thank you. I agree that fitted shelves would be what a "normal" 21st century person would do. However, he is still firmly in the "make do and mend" mindset of 1940! This is the man who thinks it's shockingly extravagant and wasteful that when one of the taps on the basin in his bathroom at home died, he had to buy a PAIR of taps and not just a single one. He couldn't see any reason to replace the tap that hadn't failed! Most of the plumbing and electrics in his house are exactly as they were when he bought it in 1959, although they did get a small boiler fitted and downstairs radiators only when they wanted to let the house for a year in 1975/6. Also, some of his bookcases are antique glass-fronted ones that are rather beautiful. Some are merely old and not beautiful at all. A motley collection of bookcases of wildly differing styles will express who he is, though. To say he doesn't have much of a "developer" approach to his living space is a bit like saying that Avatar Dog wasn't much good at nuclear physics. He's also feeling old, vulnerable, and rather overwhelmed by the prospect of moving. I think I can persuade him to let me organise getting the [STRIKE]hallway[/STRIKE] library radiator moved/replaced by telling him he'll be able to fit more bookcases in if I do. There will also be no trouble persuading him to put reflective panels behind any radiators on outside walls - he's quite eco-conscious. I doubt very much that anyone could persuade him to get anything more complicated done.

I'd be interested in your opinion of extra thick radiators like this. Does the extra volume give more heat than a double-double radiator of the same height and width, or is it outweighed by the less efficient convection? There would be space for one of those under the window, and even at that thickness it wouldn't stick out into the room any further than the bookcase beside it.



GCSE results still not on website. It obviously wasn't 8am. Perhaps it's 9am. Or maybe something's gone wrong - perhaps the person who's supposed to upload them to the school database is stuck in traffic or something.

silvercar

We had vertical radiators put in the lounge. We replaced one long old radiator that was inside a radiator box (ugh & heat blocking but fashionable round here), that meant the sofa could go against the wall, gave us about 40cm extra space (rad + box + room to let the heat out).

The guy that fitted them said that vertical radiators give less heat than their advertised BTU because heat rises and a lot of the rad is already above body level.

I like the old style rads, would go well in a hall/ library.

LydiaJ

Including the one he took last summer, DS has...

Old style GCSEs
One A* (further additional science - the one he was part home educated and part self taught for - it's the extra bits to make double science up into the same total content as 3 separate sciences), 5 As (core science, additional science, drama, computing and food tech) and a B (philosophy & ethics)

New style GCSEs (number grades of which 9 is the top and either 4 or 5 counts as a pass, nobody's sure which!)
A 9 (maths) and two 5s (Eng lang & lit)

FSMQ (free standing maths qualification - counts as half an AS-level for UCAS and doesn't have an A* grade so A is the top)
One A in additional maths - entirely self taught because his school decided not to offer it this year to concentrate on getting 9s in new GCSE maths.

He's happy. He says most of his friends are happy. I'm happy.

ivyleaf

Lovely to "see" you back Nikkster, but so sorry to hear your news, that's rotten. Wishing you as smooth a recovery as possible x

seven-day-weekend

LydiaJ wrote: »

Including the one he took last summer, DS has...

Old style GCSEs
One A* (further additional science - the one he was part home educated and part self taught for - it's the extra bits to make double science up into the same total content as 3 separated sciences), 5 As (core science, additional science, drama, computing & food tech) and a B (philosophy & ethics)

New style GCSEs (number grades of which 9 is the top and either 4 or 5 counts as a pass, nobody's sure which!)
A 9 (maths) and two 5s (Eng lang & lit)

FSMQ (free standing maths qualification - counts as half an AS-level for UCAS and doesn't have an A* grade so A is the top)
One A in additional maths - entirely self taught because his school decided not to offer it this year to concentrate on getting 9s in new GCSE maths.

He's happy. He says most of his friends are happy. I'm happy.

Well done!!!!

Are you a teacher? My husband taught Geography to A level for 25 years before he took early retirement.

PasturesNew

If it's a small space, just the hallway - living alone he won't need a radiator. Just leave the door open and make sure the front door's a good fit.

Or, just leave it out and accept "it's a bit nippier when I dash through there".

How often are you actually IN the hallway?

When you live alone there's nobody else coming in/out and leaving doors open etc. You're in control of your environment.

I'd just "do without" most likely.

Or, if the bathroom comes off that space, just change that radiator and leave the bathroom door open to heat all the space. Again, that's another room where you think "why bother heating this, I'm hardly in here".

How lone-dwellers see and use space is a different mindset to others because "it's you, you choose how you do things, where you put things .... and nobody's going to be along in 3 minutes to move something or leave a door/window open etc"

LydiaJ

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Well done!!!!

Are you a teacher? My husband taught Geography to A level for 25 years before he took early retirement.

Thank you. Yes, I teach physics at an independent school. I'm going for the opposite strategy from him - I'm intending to work until my state retirement age but all but 5 years of that have been, and are going to continue to be, part-time. I also had 4 years off with my kids when they were tiny.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

If it's a small space, just the hallway - living alone he won't need a radiator. Just leave the door open and make sure the front door's a good fit.

Or, just leave it out and accept "it's a bit nippier when I dash through there".

How often are you actually IN the hallway?

When you live alone there's nobody else coming in/out and leaving doors open etc. You're in control of your environment.

I'd just "do without" most likely.

It's huge, especially in the context of the rest of the flat - it's slightly shy of 200 sq ft, which is about the same as the living room or else the bedroom and kitchen combined. To make the downsize feel less drastic for him, I am encouraging him to think of it as "a room that has the entrance in it" rather than "a route from the front door to the actual living space", so he's decided to have it as a library. He'll potter about in it, looking at the books on the shelves and deciding which one to read next. We're not putting any chairs in it, though, so he'll need to take the book to one of the other rooms to sit and read it.

It needs to be warm because part of his rationale for moving is that for the last few years he's found the cold harder and harder to cope with. He was fine until about age 85, but his metabolism has obviously changed since then. He accepted this flat rather than holding out a bit longer on the waiting list in the hope of a 2-bed flat, which he would really have preferred, because he doesn't want to spend another winter in his uninsulated and only partially heated house.