With winter quickly approaching many parts of the world right now, it’s always important to think about where you’ve got your radiators and just how efficient they will be. If you plan to renovate a room soon and you live in a cold climate, I highly recommend thinking about upgrading your radiators. It made a world of difference in our old farmhouse and really kept us from freezing our tooshies off several winters. Here are some tips from my newest guest contributor about the best places in your rooms to place your radiators and stay warm all winter long.
When you’re building a new property or simply having a renovation, it’s important to take note of the location of home radiators. In order to achieve maximum economy and efficiency, it’s best to consider where any cold air is coming from so that it can be countered effectively, allowing the device to warm the air and do its job.
Coldest part of the room
As seems obvious, the most efficient location for the radiator is to have it placed below the window in the room of your choice. This means that the cold air coming from the window meets the warmth from the device which is traveling up to meet it.
Nowadays, most households make use of double-glazed windows and so less cold air is being allowed in anyway, giving the homeowner more license to explore other locations to install their heating device.
Radiators don’t have to be ugly. Cover them up with nice lattice work and integrate them into the room instead. photo credit: ooh_food via photopin cc
Internal/external walls
Whether or not you decide to place the device under a window, you should strongly consider having it installed on an internal wall as opposed to an external wall. The thinking behind this is that an internal wall absorbs the heat from the radiator and makes more use of it, using it to heat the rest of the house efficiently whilst heating an external wall will waste the heat outside of the house.
Alternatively, placing the device on an external wall will keep it warm and prevent condensation and damp from setting in, protecting the inside of the house and your furniture as well.
What not to do
Keep the device clear from furniture because if it is stranded behind a large sofa, cupboard or even a table, the air flow will be significantly restricted and the warm air will have nowhere to go. This also applies to heavy sets of curtains that may smother the heat, allowing less of it to travel around the room, warming it up. Always keep the area around the device clutter-free in this respect so that the productivity levels are always at a maximum.
Do not place the device opposite a window as the cold air will enter the room and sink to the floor. When it reaches the device on the other side of the room, it will be warmed up and sent in a circle, back up towards the ceiling, creating cool spots in the room.
