Radiators for a heat pump?

WishfulTouranDriver

I’d really appreciate some info & tips on how to cope with radiator upgrades for an ASHP.
I can cope with a box outside the house, I can cope with finding a place for a water cylinder, I can cope with a large financial outlay (incentives help.)
What I am really struggling with is having to accept monstrous upscaled radiators all over the house. We don’t have a big house and it will just gobble up loads of wall space. I just can’t see it working. 

Is there any way to keep the size increase minimal? Are any radiator brands or types of a similar size; just much better? 

(I know I could keep my existing radiators just run a higher flow temp… but I think if we’re going to do it at all, may as well do it properly.) 
Any thoughts are much appreciated! 

QrizB

Among the options:

Thicker radiators, with more panels and more fins.

Fan assisted radiators.

Underfloor heating (likely to be expensive).

matelodave

You can get double and triple panel rads which take up the same amount of wall space but are a bit thicker. Also fan convectors can be used with heatpumps. There are plenty of options to be explored

WishfulTouranDriver

Thanks for that. I didn’t know about fan assisted radiators, but that’s going to counteract potential energy savings. The triple radiators I’ve seen are much pricier - any makes recommended?
thanks again! 

Spies

Octopus used Stelrad on my install, you could always go longer or taller instead of thicker but you need a room by room heatloss survey rather than blindly changing radiators

Alnat1

I'm mid install this week and all the radiator changes have been done today.

The bedroom ones aren't any bigger, they are thicker K2 type but don't appear much different as they fit closer to the wall than the old ones did.

The bathrooms have replacement towel radiators that are taller than the old ones and the kitchen has a vertical radiator that is also taller than the old one.

The new radiator in the living room is actually smaller than the old one but is a very chunky K3 type.

Only 4 old radiators remain. None of the new ones look horrible or too huge, in fact I prefer the white towel ones to the super shiny chrome ones they replaced, they always got water marks on them and looked grubby.

Reed_Richards

When I had my heat pump installed, in some rooms I was able to replace old single panel radiators with new double panel double convector-fin types and the new radiators occupied less wall space than the old ones.

WishfulTouranDriver

Thanks very much, maybe it’s not so bad as I thought. The firms who have quoted have strongly suggested the radiators increase lengthways. Everyone who has advised us thinks longer radiators are the obvious solution.  Maybe that’s the cheapest option? However, as it’s kind of the last piece of a puzzle (so many decisions to take before getting to radiators), I’m worried that this decision is based on cost, when the money is nearly all spent, and this might be the thing that has the biggest impact of all on the home. I appreciate the replies very much!

FreeBear

When shopping for radiators, I noted that there was a big jump in price going from 1200mm wide to anything wider. If you don't want bigger radiators hanging on the walls and can't install UFH, your two alternatives is skirting heaters or fan assisted convectors. The latter can either be wall hung, or at ceiling level (or even in the ceiling) - Darned expensive though.

That said, I fitted a new Thermix plinth heater in my kitchen to replace an old Smiths unit. Well worth it as it doesn't occupy any wall space and blows heat out at floor level. A little bit of noise, but at an acceptable level in a kitchen. The fan consumes 15-20W when running, so negligible in the grand scheme of things. If you have vinyl wrap doors and run at high flow temperatures, the vinyl may delaminate. If you run at low flow temperatures, the thermal switch may not operate below 35-40°C (Thermix do a couple of heat pump ready models, but the price is somewhat inflated in my opinion) - I bypassed the thermal switch with a wifi smart switch hooked up to the Home Automation system. Fan always runs when the heating is active. Again, not particularly cheap.

WishfulTouranDriver

Thank you - this is amazing information. It also highlights just how lost I feel when trying to make progress in this area. These are not easy solutions, and honestly, since we are not technical, can’t do any of this ourselves and don’t have much of a clue… this pushes me more towards a new gas boiler. It’s very impressive to hear what you have done… but to me…. It’s a foreign language.

FlorayG

I went to visit a house with a heat pump installation last weekend. They had gone from the old single thickness ones to all new ones and actually some of them he said were smaller ( but much deeper) than the originals. The only room that had a much larger one was the bathroom because the towel rail ones are less efficient.
If you go on the Octopus site they have a 'visit a heat pump in your area' option, hosted by people who have done the installation