# Will i get better heat output and warmer rooms if i replace rads



## Passport1 (15 Aug 2010)

Hi
Typical semi d house about 20 years old

Last winter the rooms(Particulary the hall and the sitting room) seemed very cold even with the TRV on the rads at highest settings and stat at 20 degreees or set higher - 25 degrees during the really cold spell

The rads themselves would be very hot -so not case of them airlocked

Attic was re-insulated last year to bring it up to 30cm insulation standard or whatever the standard was and boiler for heating was replaced and whole system was flushed out at that time so no air locks in rads and rads heating up well 

The walls are hollow block constuction so cant pump insulatation into  them.  Cant really put external insulation on outside walls as house will look out of place with outjoining house 

If were to put internal isulation - will lose too much space on internal room sizes and cant afford to lose that space of room size

The windows are double glazed 

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/#top Additional Options 
The radiators in most of the rooms are the single radiators - there probably since the house was built 

If i was to replace the rads with newer rads in some/all of the rooms - like the newer double rads would that give better heat output into the rooms  and make the rooms feel hotter/warmer and be more energy efficient or would that be just a waste of money and the current rads are fine 
and its down to the insulation in the walls and also last winter really extreme temps 

Thanks


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## DGOBS (16 Aug 2010)

Of course it will output more heat into the room, but you haven't addressed the issue which is heat LOSS, and it will not be more efficient as your are going to use more fuel to heat all the larger rads, have a warmer room with an even greater loss of heat. Your bills will go up


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## nediaaa (16 Aug 2010)

you are wasting your time thinking abot the rads. Insulate, insulate, insulate. Where do you live? My brother lives in Dublin and he insulated the outside of his house and the difference was amazing. there are also grants availible thru


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## Ash 22 (19 Aug 2010)

We've just changed all the rads in our house which was built about 23 years ago. The heat was not being thrown out into the room although the rads were hot. We were told these newer rads would work better than the old ones so heres hoping. Our rads are heated from a back boiler so a good fire is needed. Presently we're thinking of getting rid of the fire and changing to a stove instead.


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## senni (4 Dec 2010)

Im in the exact same boat ... i put this question up a year ago and im still searching for options !!! I cannot insulate from outside for the same reason and i also cannot afford to lose space inside !!!  The other option i was offered and i feel is very dramatic .... is to pull the plaster of the two or three rooms that are cold and check the insulation , then add more insulation and replaster !!!  I cannot afford this option ! 

So ... IM STILL SEARCHING FOR THE ANSWER ?????????  I hope you get an option and if you do ..please tell me !!!...thanks  Senni.


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## newirishman (4 Dec 2010)

Insulate fom the outside. Why would you care if it looks "out of place" - and I can tell you that it looks less out of place as you might think.


(And I have to add this:  )


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## bstop (4 Dec 2010)

Try turning up your boiler stat. This will make your rads hotter and increase their output when the weather is very cold. You can reduce the boiler stat when the weather is milder.


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## Gordanus (21 Dec 2010)

newirishman said:


> Insulate fom the outside. Why would you care if it looks "out of place" - and I can tell you that it looks less out of place as you might think.



I do wish the external insulation companies showed more detail on their galleries: does the terraced house stick out from the others in the terrace? did the drainpipe have to be moved? Did the gutter have to be moved?  (See the last house Drogheda [broken link removed])   

It's still awfully expensive - the quote comes out at 11K (including the grant) for me.


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## esox (21 Dec 2010)

hey folks,

have you ever heard of a type of radiator which uses the existing radiator pipe work, this type of rad uses a small electric fan to increase usable heat output, with less heat input of similar sized rad. 

search for "Solo radiators" on the net or your local merchants


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## Shane007 (8 Jan 2011)

Passport1 said:


> The radiators in most of the rooms are the single radiators - there probably since the house was built
> 
> If i was to replace the rads with newer rads in some/all of the rooms - like the newer double rads would that give better heat output into the rooms and make the rooms feel hotter/warmer and be more energy efficient or would that be just a waste of money and the current rads are fine
> and its down to the insulation in the walls and also last winter really extreme temps
> ...


 
By the sounds of it, your rads are under sized. 
For example and this is approxiamate as each house will differ: 

A bedroom sized 4.0m x 3.0m with ceiling height of 2.6m and a requirement of 1 air change per hour. Design room temp = 21C and design outside temp = -3C. The house is of typical construction and is a bungalow. Say it has a large window of 2.3m x 1.2m high. This room would require a radiator of approx 1,700 watts. A single radiator sized 1.2m wide x 0.5m high will give approx 950 watts of output. (This will differ from manufacturer to manufacturer). So you can see the difference of no matter how much heat you put through that rad, it ain't gonna give you the required output.
Bathrooms require a higher design temp and 3 air changes per hour. Kitchens 2 changes per hour. Living rooms 1.5, etc. So each room should be calculated individually, rads sized accordingly, add variants for northfacing, high ceilings, exposed pipework, system losses, etc.

From this you can add your hot water cylinder load and now you know the required size of your boiler.


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## ryan-neil (11 Jan 2011)

If you know the construction you could try the Kermi heat loss calculator. Google it. I found it quick accurate.


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