Radiator Fans. Do they work?

shiraz99

I've seen a few adverts recently for these SpeedComfort radiator fans that sit underneath the rad and drawer the colder air through quicker thus apparently boosting the heat output. Do they actually work or are they a bit of a con?

The original speedcomfort ones are expensive but there seems to be cheaper alternatives, not sure whether to try them out or will they be a waste of money 

born_again

While do they move heat into the room quicker, they also cool the radiator quicker thus requiring heating to come on sooner than it would without them.

QrizB

shiraz99 said:

Do they actually work or are they a bit of a con?

Yes, they work; forced airflow will pull more heat out of your radiators and into the room. You see the same with fan-assisted convector heaters. You can even buy fanned radiators and they're sometimes used with low-temperature heating systems like heat pumps.

Whether they're worthwhile or not is for you to judge. They also use electricity and that has a cost.

born_again said:

While do they move heat into the room quicker, they also cool the radiator quicker thus requiring heating to come on sooner than it would without them.

This is an important point; the extra heat you get isn't free, it's taken from the heat in the circulating water and will be made up by the boiler burning more gas.

Vitor

IMHO you'll be better off installing a small shelf above the rad so that rising warmed air is pushed forward into the room, where it mixes with cooler air and actually reaches people instead of going up the ceiling. Nothing to power and works all be itself.

Cleaning rads helps more than most people expect, dust is an excellent insulator. A long radiator brush or even a thin bottle brush from the top, with a vacuum underneath, can noticeably improve performance