Painting over radiator foil

Spir4

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if you can paint over radiator foil (you know, the aluminium kind of foil you put behind radiators to reflect the heat back to the room).
I googled this, but google only came up with sites about painting your radiator, not about the foil.

Would this impact the reflective properties of the foil? My first instinct says yes, because, well, it doesn't reflect anymore because it's painted. But doesn't it?

Thanks!

wavelets

Spir4 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if you can paint over radiator foil (you know, the aluminium kind of foil you put behind radiators to reflect the heat back to the room).
I googled this, but google only came up with sites about painting your radiator, not about the foil.

Would this impact the reflective properties of the foil? My first instinct says yes, because, well, it doesn't reflect anymore because it's painted. But doesn't it?

Thanks!

Why are you wondering if it's possible to make your heat saving measures less effective? :huh:

Ectophile

I guess a specialist aluminium paint would work. Many normal pains won't stick to it.


But it does rather defeat the point of having a reflector behind the radiator. Why not just remove it altogether?

Cardew

There have been several threads on MSE on the effectiveness(or lack of effectiveness) of reflective radiator panels. Dealers have come on MSE making outrageous claims of savings for their panels.

In 2010 there was some correspondence with the Energy Saving Trust and this post sums up the situation.

Quote:
Right, let us try and put this saga to bed once and for all!

There has been correspondence with the Energy Saving Trust(EST) in this thread about potential savings with these panels. Read it here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...1#post38979710

The EST came up initially with a figure of £6 a year saving for a typical 3 bed semi using professionally installed panels and £3.50 a year for DIY. That is on the whole house.

They quoted a very detailed CERT report which had calculated the savings. However on reading the report it transpired EST had missed that those meagre savings only applied if the panels were used on the outside walls of houses with solid walls or walls without cavity insulation.

The CERT report was quite clear that savings were minimal(could not be measured) on houses with cavity insulated walls and so the panels should only be used on houses with solid walls; and EST have agreed with this view. EST had used the solid wall savings to reach the £6 or £3.50 savings.

So there you have it! Savings on solid walled houses £3.50 to £6 a year. With insulated cavity walled houses they save nothing!

They are a waste of money for most of us.

Spir4

Alrighty great thanks Cardew, that'll save me a lot of hassle

Norman_Castle

I've got them fitted behind two radiators which are on solid outside walls. I fitted them after the render on the outside wall directly in line with the radiator bowed outwards then fell off. They do save money but whether they are worthwhile is questionable. Mine are a few inches smaller than the radiators so only visible if you look for them.