Central Heating Advice

[orangeplum]

We live in a Victorian Terraced House with high ceilings. Our living room in particular can get very cold. It only has one large radiator and that is behind the sofa. The only other option is below the window but again there is a sofa there. Other things we could do would be to get differently shaped rads but I don't know anything about them. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how they keep such a room warm and who would you get in to give you advise on what to do - would it be a plumber or specialist.

Thanks!

moving a radiator in a room where there is already one isn't a huge job (IMHO) as the plumbing is already there. For now I would pull your sofa forward a few more inches as that is probably the problem.

Is it a double or single radiator?

The purpose of usually putting them under the window is because that is the coldest and drafiest spot in the room.

Could you have a fire in there?

A plumber will be able to check your radiator and make sure it is the correct size for the room - we had an old radiator (20yrs) changed for one half the length and double the width, heats the room much better now. Look for a plumber/heating engineer locally and ask for a quote

Does the radiator get hot all the way up, does your system need bleeding?

Its a double radiator and it does heat all the way through. I think the rad is not big enough for the room - unfortunately we don't really have space to keep the sofa away from the rad because of the width of the room.

It's much better to have a radiator under the window as it creates a convection current and thus heats the room more efficiently.

If you are interested in period effect radiators there is a company called "the radiator company" who do all manner of radiators although they are not all that cheap.

Other things to say are that it is worth checking that the boiler has sufficient output to run your existing radiators ..... calculate yourself or ask your plumber.

Replacing an old radiator for new will increase output significantly also a double panel/double convector will obviously give more output than a double panel/single convector