Radiator cover

[Jiroma]

Hi all, I'm planning on making a couple of rad covers and my wife is not keen because she like the fact that she can drape washing over them during the winter. What I'd like to do is incorporate some sort of rail that can perhaps slip in and out from the gap at the top which would give her hanging space and when not in use it could slide back in out of sight. I'd appreciate any ideas on this.

Jiroma

 

[9fingers]

Radiator covers will decrease the efficiency of your heating system and drying clothes inside the house releases excess water vapour leading to all sorts of damp and potentially, rot problems

My tip - don't do either.

Bob

 

[JasonMuteham]

Unless you have a well designed radiator cover you will probably be removing it in the winter to warm the room anyway, so the drying of clothes may not be an issue.

 

[Scrums]

Radiator covers will decrease the efficiency of your heating system

.....don't really follow -

if a radiator pumps out x amount of btu's or whatever they are, even if some of them are initially stored in the MDF of a radiator cover, then eventually they'll be distributed into the room, then when the heating switches off - the remaining heat stored in said MDF is dispersed.....how does a cover decrease the efficiency, if properly designrd ?

Chris.

 

[JasonMuteham]

I guess it's the same as trying to heat your house with an oven and keeping the oven door closed. The enclosed space will be toasty but not much will be distributed in to the room.

Also with a poorly designed cover the build up of heat will trigger the thermostatic valve long before the heat has had chance to warm the room.

 

[Steve Peacock]

Oooh ... an engineering question...

I will try to answer it - but since I live in South Africa and therefore have no need for radiators, I might not fully understand the way in which these things are controlled. I assume that there is a thermostat in the system that turns the hot water flow on and off in response to the temperature of the room (if I'm wrong about this, then parts of this mail might be rubbish).

Chris - you would be right if the radiator was an electric heater - which produces the same amount of heat regardless of the conditions around it.

However, in a water-based system, the rate of heat transfer is (among other things) determined by the difference in temperature between the hot water inside the radiator and the air outside it. The greater the difference in temperature, the faster heat is transferred.

If you "box in" a radiator, you create an insulated air space around the unit that heats up. As a result, the difference in temperature between the water and the air up against the radiator will decrease and the rate of heat transfer will drop.

It's the same as when you put on a jacket - the temperature of the air against your skin increases and the rate at which you lose heat drops - making you warmer.

However, there is a BUT ....
This limitation will only exist if the hot water is flowing to the radiator constantly (in other words - if the radiator itself is the limiting part of the system because it is too small for the room).

If the radiator is big enough - and the hot water flow to the unit doesn't happen continuously, then the system might be able to cope with being covered. It will just open the water valve more often in order to get the required heat to flow into the room.

So there is no "hard and fast" answer to the question. If you have a really big radiator, then it might cope with being covered - the water will just flow through it more often.

However, if your radiator is on the smaller side (which is probably more likely - because people don't normally install thing that are over-sized) then covering it might limit the amount of heating it can do. Even with the water flowing through it continuously, it might not be able to get enough heat into the room.

I am sure I have now confused everybody...

Cheers
Steve