Keeping Warm In Style

It’s a strange fact that when central heating systems were first being fitted in UK homes during the early part of the seventies, nobody cared a jot on the make of the boiler or radiator.

It was just such a novelty to have a new heating system that the details about manufacturer was just left to the salesmen.

For younger people today it may be hard to imagine that until the early seventies the vast majority of homes in the UK did not have central heating systems.

Most people made do with coal, gas and electric fires. And usually a combination of all three heat sources.

The government of the day was looking for ways to boost an ailing manufacturing business and to do this they introduced easy credit for even the lowest paid homeowner.

Credit had hardly existed before this time and when it did it was mainly targeted towards home improvements.

And so in the evenings when people were likely to be back from work, the knock at the door was likely to be one of three types of salesman. Central heating, double glazing and fitted carpets.

It has to be said that all three improvements transformed properties for the better.

Nowadays radiators are manufactured by a huge number of different companies and come in all sorts of shape and material finish. 

Hudson Reed radiators is just one of these brands that happen to prove very popular. There are countless others. And prices that start at something like fifty quid to ten thousand or more.

It may be hard for most of us to understand paying over ten thousand pounds for one radiator, but then not many of us have premier league football players take home pay.

If like most people, you haven’t in recent years taken a look online at all the radiators now available, perhaps you should surprise yourself by doing so now. 

There are so many different designs that some look like modern art to hang on the wall. And there’s no reason at all to have the same model in every room.

For Hudson Reed radiators http://www.designerradiatorsdirect.co.uk/

  

How Can You Make Sure That Your New Radiator Suits the Room?

We’ve all been there. You've just redecorated a room; everything looks perfect, except one thing: the radiator. Radiators are rarely considered works of art, and in a beautifully decorated room, they can actually drag things down. Today, we are going to teach you how to avoid this issue by making the right choices and ensuring that you select a radiator that will suit the room.

The first thing that you need to think about in terms of the suitability of the radiator to the room is the amount of heat that the room needs. There’s no point spending money on a beautiful radiator, one that suits the room from an aesthetic perspective, only to find that it doesn’t provide enough heat. 

OK, so your first task is to use a BTU (British thermal units) to establish the heat output requirements of the radiator. You can then use this figure to limit your search. It helps you to avoid disappointment too. If you don’t do this first, you might find a range of beautiful designer radiators and only discover later that they're inappropriate. We all know what happens then: no future radiators live up to the original range.

Now that you know the BTU needed, you can now begin to look at style. In general, you need to keep the style of the room in line with the style of the radiator. For example, if you're room is decorated in an English countryside style, then it will suit a column radiator in cast iron – the traditional panel radiators simply won’t do. Alternatively, you may have decorated the room in an art deco fashion, in which case, you should choose an art deco radiator.

Finally, we would advise you to shop for your designer radiators online. This is because they offer far more choice than the bricks-and-mortar shops do. You are much more likely to find a suitable style if you use the internet.

Are you interested in buying new radiators? If so, please visit http://www.designerradiatorsdirect.co.uk/.

How Do Compact Heaters Produce Enough Heat for the Room?

In certain rooms, and under certain conditions, compact heaters are most appropriate choice of heater. However, some people avoid using them entirely because they assume that their size means that they do not provide sufficient heat. 

 

 This is simply not true. Compact radiators and heaters can produce sufficient warmth for the room. As long as you’ve sized it correctly and chosen a heater/radiator that provides the correct amount of British thermal units per hour for the size of the room.

The reason that the myth exists (i.e. the myth that smaller radiators are worse) is because older radiators had single panels. In those days, the size of the radiator (in height, width, and length) had a direct relationship with the amount of heat that unit could produce.

This is no longer the case. Today, we have improved the technology to such an extent that we can derive a lot of heat from a small radiator. Certainly in comparison to older radiators, compact heaters and radiators can be vastly more efficient.

Why are compact radiators more efficient than many people supposed? It comes down to advances in technology. Here are some of these technologies:

1. Multi panels:

The myth that size matters has a grain of truth in it. It is not size per se that matters, but surface area. If you can increase the surface area of a radiator, then you can increase the amount of heat that it can produce.

One way of doing this is to increase the number of panels in a radiator. Older radiators consisted of a single panel, but nowadays many radiators have triple panels, and the vast majority have at least two panels.

This means that a compact heater with triple panels measuring 1m x .5m will produce more heat than a larger radiator of 3m x 1.5m.

2. Convector fins:

This is another way to increase surface area. The fins sit between the panels in a zigzag fashion and increase the surface area by a significant degree. Some radiators have double fins.

These two technologies alone mean that compact radiators are far more efficient than they used to be, and that they can produce more heat that many people assume. The important thing when looking for new radiators is to buy a unit that provides enough British thermal units per hour for the room.

Are you interested in buying new radiators? If you are, please visit http://www.designerradiatorsdirect.co.uk/.