Skirting board heating.

[pippala]

Please tell me what you know about it?
cost of installation
cost of running
energy outputs
how warm your house is with it etc etc etc!
we are renovating buy to lets atm and have never done this before and being complete novices need plenty of advice.
Many thanks x

[theexten]

PigletJohn, you have provided a link to the radiator at discounted price. Standard, a good quality radiator will set you back at as minimum as £150. In order to install your radiator by window or external wall, you must run copper pipes. Please, when comparing and giving false information, try to be precise by revealing true costs to include radiator; copper pipes; copper connectors; pipe insulation; radiator valves etc.

This thread is coming to a hault. Many posts get deleted and if a new reader comes to read it, it becomes almost impossible to figure out what is this all about.

Thank you, OliviaMumsnet, for your message with the offer to advertise here for money.

[PigletJohn]

theextn

You seem to be accusing me of showing low prices for radiators to illustrate how expensive the system you sell is.

I don't know why anybody would pay £150 for a radiator when it is freely available to the public for £48.99. Unless perhaps they wanted to give a misleading impression of what radiators cost. Screwfix isn't even a trade supplier. About the same price as Wickes or plumbase or B&Q

If you go to a plumbers merchant and buy enough of them for a house they will be even cheaper with free delivery.

I don't know why you complain that I don't include the price of running pipe to a radiator, when of course your water-heaters also need copper pipe run to them, and a metre of copper pipe only costs £2.50 a metre

As I said, I did not include the price of valves on your system, or on mine.

It is very wrong of you to accuse me of giving false information. Mine is accurate and can be checked on the links I provide.

I am disappointed that you have not provided any serious evidence to support the claim that your expensive system is in some way more energy-efficient than simple and economical radiators.

[Grumpla]

I'd like a solid gold radiator I think.

[theexten]

Sorry PigletJohn but I did not mean to accuse you at all and I am not sure why you should be. The link you have provided has discounted item and the ture price is heigher then you specify because if someone reads your thread tomorrow he or she may find this offer no longer exists.

You do not need to run copper pipes because the actual skirting has pipes integrated in it - and this is alreay in the price.

just want to mention that we are talking about EcoBoard system in case you think of any other skirting systems. EcoBoard has a heat exchanger inside its profile. This is not an aluminium skirting that uses principles of conveyed heat, in which case i would agree but not entirely. Heat exchanger incorporates two copper pipes and aluminium thin fins around the pipes. The system is designed to work with low heating temperatures and this is why it is widely used with heat pumps.
Unlike radiators, its heat up time is significantly quicker. If the system is fitted around your room, the heat is distributed evenly with no cold spots. The desired room temperare reaches its comfortable level and the thermometer tells your boiler to stop. Rads require high temperatures. High temperature, as we all know, rises and as it does, it collects under your celling. This creates cold spots and your thermostat will react slowly; your boiler is still working, whereas mine has stopped meaning i am saving and you are not.

Just one other example i have:
in my home, i have radiators. When i sit in my chair my body senses different temperature to the one when i stand up. Because all the heat is gathered up above the ceiling surface, i feel warmer when i stand. Now, with underfloor heating or skirting heating you will never have this sort of uneven temperature difference. The low temperature heat is rising up slowly and evenly; your room is perfectly temperature balanced.

[FishfingersAreOK]

theexten - noone would ever pay "full price" for a radiator. Just like you would never pay "full price" for a sofa.

Stop flogging a dead horse your product . I would seriously just leave it.

PigletJohn is hugely respected on here and has background, standing and offers trustworthy advice.

[gelo]

"You do not need to run copper pipes because the actual skirting has pipes integrated in it - and this is alreay in the price."

But most houses don't have copper pipes to the ends of the skirting run already in place - you still need pipes from the ends of the skirting to the boiler just the same as from the ends of the radiators to the boiler.

[theexten]

There is nothing wrong with the information i provide.
FishfingersAreOK, i install the system - I am not a supplier and i am not trying to sell it to anyone. Every product finds its potential buyer and everyone will stay with their own opinion.
I am not accused of you saying that PigletJohn is respected and I am just a "first time poster".

I too, agree with PigletJohn: radiators are cheap option and more traditional way of heating homes. In fact, i fit many of them but the two systems are not comparable in any way.

[gelo]

"There is nothing wrong with the information i provide."

Except there is...

"1. skirting board heating contains less water in the system. This small amount of water is heted quicker meaning less energy use by your boiler"

This is incorrect by omission, because the water will have to be heated more often, so the overall energy use by the boiler will be the same (or greater due to more heat losses through walls - see next).

"2. the system is fitted to external walls meaning it keeps them warm, so there is less heat loss"

If the walls are hotter there will certainly be more heat loss (elementary thermodynamic principles) which is why with radiators people put foil behind them to keep the heat in the room rather than in the walls. With skirting systems you can't do this, and the consequence will be hotter walls and higher heat loss through the walls, even more so if the walls don't have high U-values (eg if not cavity filled).

Also, there is nothing special about fins to aid heat exchange. Most radiators have this too, but you are making it sound as if it's some special sort of active device when in fact it's just a passive increasing surface area thing to let the heat out more quickly.

[theexten]

Gelo you are contradicting yourself.
it is within normal practices to install heating closer to cold spots such as windows and external walls.
EcoBoard is not in direct contact with the wall and if you looked closely at the system, which we are talking about then you would understand that EcoBoard is fitted to walls with aluminium heat reflective foil stip, which runs behind heating elements just as you mention about radiator foil.

I do think you should look at the system first before you make your statement.

[gelo]

theexten, I am not contradicting myself, I think you are.

Either your system is thermally insulated from he walls, in which case it won't heat them, or it isn't and it will. You stated upthread that it warmed the walls up - ergo it isn't (very well) thermally insulated from them. Yet now you are trying to tell me that there is insulation and foil, in which case (if the insulation is adequate) then the walls won't be warmed. Which is it??

Situating rads under windows is for different reasons than heating external surfaces - it's to heat the cold air falling from being in contact with the glass - ie, heating the air as soon as it is cooled.

[PigletJohn]

"2. the system is fitted to external walls meaning it keeps them warm, so there is less heat loss"

doesn't make sense. A warmer external wall will lose more heat

[Scrowley]

I was thinking about them. They sounded great. But I have heard enough. Thank you for all of you constructive information...... Rads for me!