Radiator Efficiency: Keeping the System Flowing

Gas and electricity prices are soaring once more. For many, this means finding ways of cutting costs. One of the most common sources of money loss to the electricand gas companies is the central heating system. An inefficient system can cost you hundreds of pounds a year in higher bills. Here, we’re going to provide you with a few tips for improving the efficiency of your radiators.

Regular Services

In the past, people would service their central heating systems regularly – between 3 to 5 years on average. For some reason, people are less inclined to do this nowadays, but it’s certainly a false economy. Unless your system is relatively new (less than 10 years), you should have the system serviced from time to time. A service person will check everything, from the valves to the boiler. It is important that they look at the whole system, because modern radiator valves and modern boilers tend to be built to be replaced. In the past, a valve would last for years, but modern radiator valves tend to be built to lower standards – as with many things in the modern world!

Home Maintenance

As well as making use of a professional service, you should also carry out your own maintenance every once in a while. Here are two things that you can do yourself:

1.Bleed the radiators: over time, air can accumulate in the system and this will affectefficiency. Air will lose heat much faster than oil or water, so if there is air in the system the radiator will lose heat too quickly. You will find a bleed valve on the radiator and you should release it every now and then to ensure that you remove the air from the system. Do this every month to make sure that you keep the system free from air. There are plenty of instructions online to help you to work out how to bleed the radiator.

2.Change the filters: some radiators have filter to catch debris that might be present in the system. This debris is usually rust, or something internal that is disintegrating. This is normal and natural, and it doesn’t mean that you have a problem with the system – unless you find that you're changing the filters very regularly. If there is too much debris in the system, then you may need to replace a pipe or a radiator, but you need to establish where the problem has arisen before you make any changes, and for this, you may need a plumber/service engineer.

Techniques to Improve Efficiency

There are a few things that you can do to increase efficiency:

1.Use a reflector panel. You place these behind the radiator and they reflect the heat back into the room, instead of allowing it to be absorbed through the walls.

2.Use a thermostat and a timer so that you can control the temperature of the house for the periods in which you will be home.

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How Can You Make Your Radiators More Efficient?

We live in the UK, and it gets cold, so it follows that radiators are an essential feature in all of our homes. However, many people’s radiators are running inefficiently: they’re costing more money to run than is necessary, and they aren’t producing as much heat as they are able to. Here, we’re going to consider some of the things that you can do to ensure that your radiators are working to optimal capacity. By the end of this article, you should have a few good tips to help you keep those electricity and gas bills at a reasonable level, even if the gas/electric companies are trying to bleed us dry.

Use a Timed Thermostat

It is amazing how many households waste money because they don’t use a thermostat. Here is a common scenario to explain why thermostats are important, and how they can help you save money:

•Sarah works all day. She leaves the radiators off all day. When she gets home, it’s freezing cold, so she whacks the temperature up to 40 to make sure that it gets hot as quickly as possible. That costs a lot of money, and with a timed thermostat, she could have set the heating system to come on ½ an hour before she gets home. By the time she’s home the house is nice and warm, and she’s spent less money on her heating.

Bleeding the Radiators

The majority of radiators, whether residential or trade radiators, use water or oil within the system. This is because it is much better at retaining and distributing heat than air. With air, it gets warm quickly, but it cools quickly too. Air is much less efficient for radiation.

So, air is less efficient – what’s that got to do with an oil/water based radiator? Well, overtime, air will get into the system, and when this happens, it has an effect on efficiency. You need to be able to let the air out of the system when it accumulates. To do this, you bleed the radiator. A special bleed valve with key will allow you to do this.

It is important, therefore, that you bleed the radiator on a regular basis if you want to ensure your radiator remains efficient. This is true whether you are buying domestic radiators or trade radiators.

Reflector Panels

You have probably heard that if you place a piece of foil behind the radiator, that it will reflect the heat back into the room, thereby making the radiator more efficient. This is true, but today, you can purchase radiator reflector panels, which are far superior to using sheets of foil. It has been estimated that a standard two bedroom home can save an average of £50 a year. This may not sound like a lot, but money is money at the end of the day, and if you look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves. You may have to remove the radiators to fit the panel, but that’s relatively easy.

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The Pros and Cons of Buying Radiators on the Cheap

If you're thinking of buying new radiators, and you have looked around the internet to see what you can buy, you will have found that there are massive discrepancies in price. At any one site, you'll be able to find radiators for as little as £50 and as much as £2,500+. Given this huge difference, it can be difficult to establish whether the more expensive radiators are worth it, or whether the cheap radiators are really a waste of money. Well, as you can probably appreciate, there are pros and cons with each. Here, we’re going to consider the pros and cons of cheaper radiators. By the end of the article, you will have a much better appreciation of whether you should stretch your budget or go cheap.

The Cons of Buying Cheap Radiators

There are a few downsides to buying cheap radiators, and it is important that you understand this before you decide to make any purchases:

•The cheapest radiators are usually components for a central heating system. In other words, they are not standalone units. You cannot turn them on without turning on the entire system. This is great for rooms, such as living rooms, where people tend to require heat all the time, but for other rooms, such as bathrooms it may not prove as fruitful.

•They can look cheap. If you're concerned about your internal decoration, then cheaper radiators may not prove the ideal choice. There are some attractive radiators on the market, but there are also some that look cheap. If you do decide to buy at the lower end of the scale, then do choose a style that looks solid.

•There not necessarily as efficient as the more expensive styles. Many of the expensive radiators cost so much because they have been highly engineered. They are designed to be as efficient as possible. With the cheaper radiators, you may lose some efficiency, which will then have some effects on your household bills. You may find that they become a false economy because they cost you more money to run.

The Pros of Going Cheap

There are several advantages in buying cheap radiators.

•Although in some instances, they may be inefficient, by and large a radiator is a radiator, regardless of the amount of engineering it has undergone. As long as you do regularmaintenance, e.g. bleed the radiator every week or so, you should be able to maintain a good level of service. The important thing is that you keep an eye on what you're doing.

•They will save you money. If you're moving house, or you’re renting your property, you may want to change the radiators because it can make the property more appealing. At such times, cheap radiators may prove the ideal solution. 

•You will be able to afford larger models, which means that you can produce more heat. The larger the radiator, the more heat it emits. This will only really make a difference if you prefer your home on the warm side.

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Radiators: How to Ensure Your Get Maximum Heat for Minimal Cost

As many of you know, electricity and gas prices are going through the roof. Many of us have seen our household heating bills double in the last ten years, and most of us are not financially able to cope with these massive changes. It is important, therefore, that we find as many ways to minimise costs as possible. One of the most important things is to ensure that your radiators are working to optimal capacity. Here, we’re going to let you in on a few tricks to ensure that you get the most for your money.

The Position of the Radiator

The position of the radiator is important. Common sense may have you believe that the radiator should be positioned on the wall furthest away from the windows. You would assume that the closer it is to the window, the more heat you lose. However, having the radiator underneath the window is the correct position. It will create a barrier of heat between the inside and the outside. The cool air will warm as it enters the room, and the heat will remain in the coldest part of the room while radiating outwardly.

The Size of the Radiator

The bigger the better? Right. No, actually, that’s wrong. You need to make sure that the radiator fits the room. There are clear guidelines as to the number of British Thermal Units per hour a room requires in order to reach optimal heating capacity. British Thermal Units per hour are almost always related to the size of the radiator. The larger the radiator, the more heat it can produce. There are many online information sheets that can help you to establish exactly what size of radiator a given room requires. All you need to know is the height, width and length of the room and the calculators will do the rest for you.

The Material of the Radiator

Generally, the material from which the radiator is made will make little differences, but there are a few things that you can do to improve efficiency and reduce the electric/gas bills.

Cast iron radiators: these take a long time to heat up, but they retain their heat for a long time. They make good sense if you want to save money because you can switch them on early in the morning (use a thermostat instead of getting up early!), when the off-peak rates are in force, and then switch them off during the key parts of the day – they remain warm.

Aside from this, there are no real differences between radiators UK, regardless of the materials. In fact, the cast iron radiator trick only works if you have on peak/off peak tariffs – many homes do not.

Bleeding the Radiator

Finally, radiators UK can become inefficient because they may trap air. When air gets trapped, it causes the radiators to lose heat faster and to create less heat for the same amount of energy. It is important that you bleed your radiator regularly. The radiator should have instructions on bleeding, but you can also find ‘How to’ articles online.

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Choosing a Towel Radiator for Your New Bathroom

Decorating can be fun! The planning, the prettying, and the design: they are a great way to let your artistic side shine.  However, some aspects of design require a little bit of technical knowhow, and one area is radiators. You need to choose your towel radiators carefully to ensure that they’re right for the room. There are several angles to this: the size, the heat output, the finish, and of course, the style. Below, we have provided you with a brief guide to choosing towel radiators for your bathroom. Hopefully, by the time you reach the end of the article, we will have settled much of your stress and worry.

When Will You Use the Radiator?

This sounds like a silly question and most people will answer, ‘when it’s cold, duh!’ While that may be true for the other radiators in your home, for the bathroom heaters this may not be the case. Firstly, you use them to dry your towels, and they’ll require drying throughout the summer months. Secondly, you don’t want the heating on in the bathroom if you only use the room in the morning – that’s just a waste of energy, and consequently, money.

In the bathroom, it makes most sense to have a dual fuel radiator. This is one that you can connect to the central heating system, and so have on when the rest of the system is working; but you can also use it as a standalone heater – meaning that you don’t need to switch on the entire central heating system simply to dry your towels.

The duel-fuel models are much more economical.

How Much Power Do You Need?

It’s usual to calculate the amount of heat that you require by taking the room measurements. Once you have the measurements (height, depth, and width), you can then calculate how many British Thermal Units per hour it takes to heat the room. Don’t worry, there are online calculators to help you work this out, all you need are the measurements.

Generally speaking, the British Thermal Unit per hour measurement directly relates to the size of the radiator. The larger the radiator, the more heat it can radiate. You must bare this in mind because bathrooms are relatively small. It is usual to buy a vertical radiator for use in the bathroom.

What Material Do You Want?

You can buy radiators in all manner of materials: cast iron, stainless steel, aluminium, chrome, etc. However, our personal recommendations are for stainless steel towel radiators. This is because stainless steel is much more efficient in the bathroom. Here’s why:

1.It heats up and cools down quickly, which means that you have much better control over the heating. This is important in a bathroom because it often gets used on an ad hoc basis, and it often requires quick heating.

2.Stainless steel towel radiators are easier to clean. When they’re splashed with water, you simply wipe it off. It doesn’t leave a residue or calcium deposits.

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