Radiators in on landings and hallway? 8 December 2022 at 6:13PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 22 replies 926 views

Ectophile

Since heat rises, a radiator at the bottom of the stairs should be heating the entire stairwell.  But only if it's big enough to do something useful.  Installing a bigger radiator is likely to cost a lot less than installing two new ones.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Food for thought, thanks 

FreeBear

easy said:

"We know which bits are poorly insulated and are slowly adding as and when we can afford"

Might it be worthwhile to get a loan (if you can get a fairly cheap-ish one)  to add more insulation now?  It's forecast to be a cold winter right through,  It might be cheaper to pay interest on the loan than on lost heat..

Insulation on its own is pretty cheap - Bunged out £300 or so on a stack of Celotex earlier in the year to finish off insulating the solid walls here. It is the fitting & finishing that costs if you are having to pay someone to do the work.

silvercar

Start closing more doors, it will make a big difference. We have radiators in the hall upstairs and downstairs, but closing the doors keeps the rooms warmer. 

Downstairs the front door is the source of cold air, I probably should sort out the draughts between door and frame. Upstairs I’m not sure why the hall is colder but it is. Keeping doors closed makes a big difference.

Ben1989

We've upgraded a few radiators to large 'double' radiators and what a difference they made!

Also, ensure the temperature for your central heating temperature (flow temperature) is high enough. If it's too low your house will take hours to reach temperature. 

ComicGeek

One thing that surprises a lot of people is that heating systems are still typically designed and installed to achieve a maximum temperature of 18 degrees in kitchens, hallways/landings, cloakrooms and bedrooms, in line with the current but outdated British Standards and design codes. That's even the case with new builds where developers are looking to save every penny. Adjacent rooms with a higher design temperature of 21 degrees (living rooms) or 22 degrees (bathrooms, en-suites) are also rarely sized correctly to cope with heat loss to the adjacent cooler rooms. 

So when it's as cold as it is at the moment (which is probably at or lower than the design external air temperature) then a lot of heating systems just won't get higher than 18 degrees in these rooms when running at 100%, regardless. It's not a flaw with the heating system installation, but a decision made that 18 degrees is an acceptable design temperature for those rooms. 

Hallways are normally the coldest part of the house, which is why thermostats are traditionally placed there, being the last room to get to temperature. A cold hallway just takes the heat from adjacent rooms if the doors aren't closed - a real issue if they are bedrooms and only sized to achieve 18 degrees at best anyway.

Personally I always size heating systems at 21 degrees in all rooms (and 22 degrees in bathrooms/en-suites), as a consistent temperature across the house makes more sense for modern living. With bedrooms used for studying/home offices etc, it's just not the case anymore that everyone sits around the fire in the living room.

Ben1989

Can I ask ComicGeek what you specifically mean by 'size' as a verb? Do you mean size as in radiator size? 

Slinky

silvercar said:

Downstairs the front door is the source of cold air, I probably should sort out the draughts between door and frame. Upstairs I’m not sure why the hall is colder but it is. Keeping doors closed makes a big difference.

Is your loft hatch on the upstairs landing? Is the back of the hatch insulated?

FreeBear

Ben1989 said:

Can I ask ComicGeek what you specifically mean by 'size' as a verb? Do you mean size as in radiator size? 

'Size' in this context means the output rating (either BTU or KW).

silvercar

Slinky said:

silvercar said:

Downstairs the front door is the source of cold air, I probably should sort out the draughts between door and frame. Upstairs I’m not sure why the hall is colder but it is. Keeping doors closed makes a big difference.

Is your loft hatch on the upstairs landing? Is the back of the hatch insulated?

Yes and yes.

The stairs are U shaped and on the turn there is a large, but double glazed, window. The ceiling to the stairs is therefore very high, so probably the rads are under sized for the volume of the hallway. Plus the bedrooms off the hallway that are not used have their TRVs turned down to 2, so there is a lot of coldness nearby.