Jaga Strada hybrid radiator (low water content) alternative?

ThisIsWeird

What's the appeal of low water content? 

FreeBear

waqasahmed said:

FreeBear said:

ThisIsWeird said: how much do they cost? And what do you want out of these rads - other than heat?

Can't find a price list for the H2O models, but the Strada is around £450 for the single (3.2kW @75/65°C) and £610 for the twin (3.6kW @75/65°C) - That's for the 650mm high, 1200mm long, 220mm deep. On par with "designer" radiators, but darned expensive when compared to a basic Stelrad. Oh, and the fan boost adds another £550 on top.

Do Stelrad also have the low water content radiators?

Not sure. But Myson and Smiths do.

Albermarle

ThisIsWeird said:

What's the appeal of low water content? 

To help marketing/increase the price?

ThisIsWeird

Oooooh, cynical!
I like it

coffeehound

ThisIsWeird said:

What's the appeal of low water content? 

It runs the system more 'lean' by metering out the heat more precisely.  Compare that with a bloated system having large bore pipes and oversize radiators where a large amount of heat must be dumped in to bring all that extra water up to temperature.  Low water content is more - yup - efficient.

ThisIsWeird

I agree. But marginally more efficient.
It is certainly more responsive. But for the vast majority of the time, that's immaterial. 
The old Thermalpanels I mentioned were roughly the same price as conventional rads per power output (they were physically smaller), so fair do's. The Stradas, tho', are silly money. I doubt very much you'd recoup the extra, however long you live

FreeBear

ThisIsWeird said:

I agree. But marginally more efficient.
It is certainly more responsive. But for the vast majority of the time, that's immaterial.

So it takes 15 minutes for a conventional radiator to get up to temperature compared to the 5 minutes of a Jaga. The room is going to take much, much longer to heat up, so the response time of the radiator is not really that important.

One advantage of bigger bore pipes and larger conventional radiators is that they contain a lot more water - With a heat pump, this means you can get away with a smaller buffer tank (or even do away with it completely).