How the Latest Technology Can Make Your Radiators More Efficient and Save You Money

Are your radiators efficient? Do you think that you're spending too much on your energy bills during the wintertime? If so, you need to read this article because we are going to look at some of the top technologies that you can incorporate into your central heating system to make sure that it's more efficient. Long-term, it will help to save you money.

Thermostatic Radiator Valves

These ingenious valves are a type of valve that controls the temperature of the radiator automatically. You can just leave them to do their work without having to play around with the settings.

In the past, we had manual valves. That means if you wanted to set the temperature of the radiator, you have to go around to each radiator at a specific time and change it and real-time.

Thermostatic radiator valves allow you to set the temperature in the radiator will open and close its valves itself to maintain that temperature.

Most modern radiators come with thermostatic radiator valves and standard, but if you have old-fashioned traditional radiators, you might not have them yet. Fortunately, you can buy them as after-sales items. So you can have them to radiators that don't already make use of this technology.

Thermostatic radiator valves ensure that you do not waste more energy than you need.

Smart Technology

Smart technology is awesome and it's entering the home all over the place. It is part of the internet of things and it even applies to our radiators.

Smart radiators are fantastic things to add to your home if you want to make your home more efficient. They allow you to do all sorts of things. For example, you can adjust the temperature of your radiators from the bed. Or, if you've left the heating on all day and you're at work and think that it should be switched off, you can do it from your mobile phone! 

You can control your central heating system from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. That gives you incredible control.

Radiator Reflector

Radiator reflector is something that you put behind your radiator. It prevents your radiator from losing heat in the wall behind it. You don't want to hit the wall. You want to heat your room. 

Without a radiator reflector, you can lose a lot of heat in the Wall, especially if it's a North-facing wall. The radiator reflector will prevent that. It won't stop the heat escaping completely, but will minimise the amount that you lose.

These three pieces of technology can make a huge amount of difference to your radiators, especially if you have traditional radiators, as they will make them much more efficient. Newer radiators are built better and are much more efficient, but they will still benefit from this technology.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this article.

Want Your Home to Feel More Luxurious? Read our Top Tips

Some people find it pretentious, but luxury can be a great way to bring a sense of calm to your space and help you love your home. At the same time, many of us are strapped for cash and it isn't always easy to afford luxury. Fortunately, some cheap things that you can do will help make your space feel more luxurious.

Tip 1: Let There Be Light

The right choice of light can do wonders for your home. During the day, you want to enhance the amount of light in the home. This makes the home feel bigger, which naturally makes it feel more luxurious. 

To increase the light during the day, make sure that your paintwork and wallpaper are neutral colours, preferably in shades of white and with an eggshell or satin Sheen.

Increase the amount of mirrors and reflective surfaces in the home to make sure that the light moves around freely. For example, you should think about buying additional mirrors and mirrored radiators, such as those in the MHS radiators range.

At night, it is all about mood lighting. To this end, stand-up lamps in every room can make them feel much more luxurious.

Tip 2: Make Sure the House is Airy and Smells Nice

When I had my building survey done, one thing that the structural surveyor said to me was that I needed to keep the windows open for 10 minutes every day. This is because it helps clean out the home of bad smells and create a clean crisp environment. 

Cleanliness and airiness are both adjectives associated with luxury, so it's well worth incorporating them.

Other things that you can do to help here is to buy air-purifying plants and use wax candle burners.

Tip 3: Cover Up Any Cracks

Many people freak out about cracks in the wall, but they're pretty much a standard in every house. Homes move and this will naturally crack the plaster, but not necessarily the foundations or the walls. 

If you've noticed some cracks, don't worry too much about them unless they are in the walls themselves and not plasterwork. Otherwise, Get an interior decorator in to tape over the cracks and then feather out the paint.

Just filling in cracks can you transform space if you have too many cracks in the home? This happened to ask recently. We had a few large cracks and hired a decorator to come and cover them up and it completely transforms the house. I had a valuation done before and after and the difference was around £15,000in the value of my property. 

Tip 4: Buy a New Radiator

A new radiator will bring light into a room. Go for a high-quality radiator, such as MHS radiators, and you will see just how much they help improve the feel of your home. They're not even that expensive. You can install an excellent radiator for as little as £400 all in. The difference it can make can be very dramatic indeed.

Following the tips above will help you to make the most of your home and make it feel more luxurious. The best thing is that they aren't too expensive to implement.

How to Keep Children and Pets Safe around Radiators

When most people think about radiators, they don't think about them as something particularly dangerous. However, when you think about it in more depth, you can understand the risks and perils.  They contain very hot water and this can lead to burns.

There are several different ways in which radiators can cause injury. For example, the radiators themselves can become very hot during use, and if a pet or child accidentally falls on a hot radiator, they can receive burns.  These burns tend to be relatively minor as the pet or child will quickly move once they feel the heat. 

Another example is when a radiator becomes damaged and starts squirting out very hot water.  This is a much more serious problem and can lead to second-degree, and even third-degree, burns.

In this article, we are going to explore how you can keep your child and pet safe around your radiators.

Make sure the radiators conform to British Safety Standards

I am assuming that you live in Britain. If so, you must ensure that the radiators you by conform to British safety standards.  There is legislation governing the production of radiators and, in part, it addresses the need to ensure all valves and parts are heat resistant and unlikely to fail. 

If you buy cheap radiators online, you might be buying them from unregulated markets, such as China. You should never do this. Whilst you will have to pay more for buying them in the UK, you can still find comparatively cheap radiators here. They just can't compete with unregulated markets. 

And, that's not to say that all Chinese imports are bad. Some of them will conform to safety standards. However, it's much safer for you to buy these via the online UK-based retailers, and not directly from the Chinese markets as the UK retailers will have had the products tested to ensure they conform. 

Have Your Radiators Serviced Annually

An annual service allows you to locate issues early - before they become a problem. A plumber will be able to fix any leaky valves or any problems that might be leading to pressure build-up in your central heating system. 

They’ll be able to find those weak points and correct them. 

Use a Radiator Cover

A secured radiator cover (i.e. one that you secure to the wall, rather than leaving freestanding - I used a free-standing one once and it fell on my nephew, so you must secure it to avoid issues like that. Bless him - he's so cute!) will help to protect your pets and children from touching the radiator directly. 

They should never get hot enough to cause any type of burn. A bonus here is that you can use them to cover the radiator if you opted to buy cheap radiators online (UK radiators, of course!) and you dislike the style. It's a win-win. 

I hope you found this article useful and that you put these steps into practice.