New radiators

[SunflowerLV]

Hi,

I am planning a house renovation and would like to replace all the radiators. I like the look of the Zehnder Roda but it will be too expensive to do this for the whole house.

I am thinking of using the Zehnder Roda (vertical rads) in the living room and use cheaper horizontal radiators in the bedrooms, hallway and landings.

I would really appreciate suggestions of good quality alternative radiators that I could use.

Many thanks!

because heat rises from the top, tall radiators are especially good for warming the ceilings. This will be appreciated by your spiders. Is that what you really want?

Tee hee !! Have you compared price for what you are thinking about to having under floor heating instead ? Ie no rads to see / hide - could mean happy toes ?!!

Wow, they do seem to be on the expensive side!

We've just replaced our bedroom radiator with a Stelrad Concord which has a similar look. Very happy with it, looks stylish and high quality imho and works brilliantly. We'll be using it to replace all our other existing radiators when we finally get round to renewing the central heating.

PigletJohn - ah, I see what you mean. I don't have the wall space for horizontal radiators in the living room. I can only achieve the BTUs required for the area by using the vertical rads. The only space that I could potentially put a horizontal rad is behind the sideboard but I don't think that is not ideal or is it a possible option?

PigletJohn - you seem to know a lot about plumbing. Could I ask you a question about microbore pipes? I am getting conflicting advice which is leaving me feeling very confused.

There are microbore pipes to the radiators. I will be replacing my combi with a Megaflow (or the equivalent) as my house is over 4 floors and some people have said I need to replace all the pipes as they are so small I will have problems in the future (when them getting blocked) and it will be difficult for adequate water to get to the 4th floor and some people have said I don't need to and all modern houses have microbore pipes. I would be really grateful to hear what your thoughts are. I obviously don't want to replace the pipes if I don't need to as it is very expensive but I don't want to spend all this time and money on a new boiler and water cylinder to have rubbish pipes.

Thank you!

OnePlanOnHouzz - we initially was going to have underfloor heating due to the lack of free wall space but had to rule it out because the ground floor is concrete and a wet UFH would rise the floor level too much.

Brumeye - I've just taken a look at the Stelrad Concord and it is very similar and a lot cheaper. Thank you! Pleased that you are happy with it.

microbore pipes are not much good. They are liable to clog, and they make it difficult to clean the system of sludge and sediment. They mean that you can't successfully add an extra radiator, as each radiator needs its own pair of pipes. They were generally used as a cheap and quick way of installing CH without taking up the floors, because they just staple the pipes to walls and skirting.

It is not true that all modern houses have microbore.

Thanks PigletJohn. How much, ballpark, should I budget to change all the microbore pipes would you say? I live in London. Is there anything else I should bear in mind for this type of work? Thanks.

Dunno.

You need someone to look round the house and see how much work it is.

Cutting or lifting flooring that has been fixed down is especially tiresome, so if you need plumbing or wiring done, think about it first so you can have it all completed before doing floors.

Thanks PigletJohn. If you were in my shoes, would you change the pipes?

yes