Cold front room and new rad, plus a complicated drawing!

[thornton_chris]

Firstly I apologize for my disgraceful drawing!

We live in an old mid terrace house and the front room is considerably colder than the rest of the house.

This could be down to
-Front door opens straight into the room
-Stair case has no door and so all heat goes up the staircase
-Its the only downstairs room which has floorboards and a void underneath

We've already put draught excluder around the front door and we don't want to add a door onto the bottom of the staircase.

I was going to insulate between the rafters under the floor boards but this is going to be a lot of up heaval and I'm not convinced that it will make much difference.

My final idea was to add another radiator. Below are some drawings and I would welcome anyones ideas/comments on wether this is viable or not.

The boiler is a Valliant Eco Tech Combi (600 I think but it doesn't say).

On the drawing the thick lines are 22mm pipe and the thin ones are 15mm.

Is it an issue to have 2 rads in the same room both with TRVs fitted?

I know I've asked a lot of questions!

Cheers,

Chris

Untitled

• thornton_chris
• 17 Sep 2009
• 1

Untitled

• thornton_chris
• 17 Sep 2009
• 1

 

[kevplumb]

Is it an issue to have 2 rads in the same room both with TRVs fitted?

no

go for the largest rad you can fit

if its to big you can turn it down

to small your in the brown smelly stuff

draught proofing goes a long way to keeping heat in

btw ive seen worse drawings usually on the back of fag packets

 

[doitall]

Can you move it nearer the stairs to distribute the heat better.

 

[cmother1]

I'd think the staircase was the biggest culprit here. I once had to put a heavy dust sheet over the bottom of ours and within moments it was bowed out like the sail of a racing yacht by the hot air trying to escape upwards. We now have an even heavier curtain on it in winter.

 

[bengasman]

Your drawing is disgraceful.

With your situation, you will need a big radiator.
If your roomstat is in this room, it really can't be too big; double panel, double convector, 700 mm high.
I would put the rad as far as is practicable from the window and the stairs. Away from the window, to enable you to close the curtains on those long, cold winter nights, without the heat getting trapped behind the curtains; you want a warm room, not a hot window.
Away from the stairs because there is little point in having the top of the stairs 25 degrees, and the other side of the room 15 degrees; the heat will rise anyway.
Extending the windowsill inwards if possible, and letting the curtains fall on the sill, will also help.
Selotex under the floor, or alternatively carpet with very thick underlay will also help.
The bottom line in your case is: your room is very prone to draft, and it is almost impossible to heat against draft. At least you don't have a chimney adding even more draft.

 

[thornton_chris]

Great replies thanks.

By the way, we do have a chimney!

I think we'll go with the bigest rad we can but the only place it can go is under the window so we'll shorten the cutains so that they sit on the windowsil rather than hanging over it. Then hopefully the heat won't get trapped behind them. I thought I'd read somewhere that under the window was the best place for rads.

The thermostat isn't in this room so hopefully that won't cause a problem.

 

[Diyisfun]

By the way, we do have a chimney!

Get a ballon for the chimney, I put 1 in last winter, brilliant. I used to have such a draught from the livingroom door, now nothing.

http://www.chimney-balloon.co.uk/

 

[kevplumb]

now theres a darn good idea

 

[thornton_chris]

We've currently got a bin bag full of newspaper up ours which makes for good fun when you light the fire for the first time in the winter and realise its still up there!

 

[thornton_chris]

OK last question!

I'm going to run the new pipework in the plastic stuff (copper up to rad).

It will be under the floor boards. Is it OK to clip it under the joists (ground floor level). This way I won't need to notch any joists.

Chris

 

[kevplumb]

yup and make sure you lag them

 

[thornton_chris]

This really is the last question......!

I got it wrong, the thermostat IS in this room (we moved it last year and I had forgotten.

Anyway because the thermostat is in the front room the existing rad does not have a TRV. Should I install a TRV on the new rad (same room)?

I.e. 2 rads in the same room as the thermostat without TRVs.

 

[doitall]

No real point.

 

[bengasman]

No trv. You can stick a manual valve on the smallest of the 2 rads if you must, but personally, I would stick lockshields only on both rads.

 

[thornton_chris]

OK. I have now completed this job however!......

The front room is nice and warm however because it has 2 rads it gets hot so quickly that the rest of the house is always cold!

Is there anything I can do? I have tried just running one of the 2 rads and it is still too cold.