Radiator Covers' Impact?
Does anyone know the impact of radiator covers on the effectiveness of old-school cast iron radiators in a hot water system? These are the standard wooden ones with a solid wood top and a metal grating on front. I like the exposed radiators, the spouse likes them covered. I feel like they’ll heat the room…
Does anyone know the impact of radiator covers on the effectiveness of old-school cast iron radiators in a hot water system? These are the standard wooden ones with a solid wood top and a metal grating on front.
I like the exposed radiators, the spouse likes them covered. I feel like they’ll heat the room better if they’re uncovered.
Am I right? Is he right? Or does covered vs. uncovered really not amount to a hill of beans, so people should just do what they like best aesthetically?
Thanks.
cover will block at least 70% of your nice radiant heat….that lovely glow you fell across the room when the radiator is hot.
And besides this, convection is convection…the cold air is already on the floor and the radiator has sections to draw the air through. no reason to add anything that would hamper either natural occurance
Master Plvmber, how would you do that? Holes in top and bottom but not on sides? Does this apply equally to steam and water systems? This advice seems to contradict geekspice’s experience somewhat though.
I noticed a decrease when I had custom built radiator covers installed. I solved this issue by placing a fan directly in front of the radiator pointing inward thereby blasting out more heat than when they went uncovered for many years.
You can increase the output of some radiators by the use of covers designed and placed in a certain way. By directing cool airflow to the bottom and warm airflow out the top, you can actually promote convection more than what would naturally occur.
When I covered my radiators, my rooms got noticeably warmer, as the heat seemed to be directed out into the rooms more instead of rising straight to the ceiling. Plus, it looks way better and you can put stuff on the covers. Win-win-win.
There appears to be a theory that having a cover keeps the warmth lower (as the convection flow of air is more horizontal. Not sure I buy this, but in general unless you totally cut off the air flow, the change is probably small. On steam radiators, you can change the heat exchange more by covering them.
You can mitigate the heat loss by putting aluminum foil betweeen the wall & the radiator – shiny side out.