Vertical radiators

[VinandVigour]

Due to lack of wall space (French doors, fireplace, open plan on three walls) i have a couple of rooms where it would make sense to change from horizontal radiators to vertical, to free up once remaining large wall for sofa. Currently the sofa is pushed close to the radiator, which stifles the heat and also sticks out further into the room.

So a long winded way of asking, has anyone moved from horizontal to vertical and noticed a difference in heat output? A couple of heating engineers have mentioned their concerns.

So a long winded way of asking, has anyone moved from horizontal to vertical and noticed a difference in heat output? A couple of heating engineers have mentioned their concerns.

We have a 8m by 7m space we are building which needs 20-30,000 BTUs to heat. Builder tells us it wont be possible with verticals and 4 x 2m standard ones (about 7800 BTUs each) is the only way to go.

We've done it with 3 of these instead (10,000 BTU each), for the same price: www.radiatoroutlet.co.uk/1780-x-472mm-black-double-oval-tube-vertical-radiator

TLDR: many vertical radiators are crap fashion accessory things that cost a fortune, not all are.

We have vertical radiators and we love them. They belt out heat much more than our old radiators, although the old ones are probably the ones installed when the house was built in 1975.

Yes we have a 2m high triple vertical column radiator (acova from screwfix) and IIRC it is about 8000 BTU and belts out a lot of heat in a large space. Really pleased with it.

Just checked it's 6200 BTU. But still really warm and toasty.

Thank you everyone for your replies. The consensus seems to be, the only way is up!

One downside; you can't dry things off as easily on a vertical. Not that I do but it's nice to warm your gloves up. We have one by our front door and one in our bathroom.

Probably depends on the quality of the rads and the efficiency of the heating system/boiler.
I’ve got two, one in the kitchen and one in the utility precisely because of space issues. They’re great, so far anyway . The only thing I would say is, verticals do tend to look a bit industrial I think, I m not sure I would have put them in a sitting room, but I suppose that’s dependant on the style, maybe a sleek modern one would go well with a sleek modern sitting room (as opposed to my tired old, dog filled sitting room ).

I agree re the style. I have an Edwardian house, I am moving it (kicking and screaming) to a slightly more modern vibe but will need to be careful re styling. Judas Ours is more cat filled, rather than dog but I think the same issues apply!

We have had the vertical rads fitted. I can honestly say our house has never been so warm, or so stylish! We are absolutely delighted. Thank you all for your responses.

@VinandVigour please would you share where you got yours from? Many thanks!

MariaPuff we had to have the whole system replaced, so our plumbers gave us several brochures to look at. We chose the style and they then went for the best deal they could find, but we stipulated That we wanted a decent quality, 10 year guarantee.

A tip if you do decide to go for them, we only had these Installed downstairs, including a couple of matching horizontal ones, but they look so stylish we wish that we had had them upstairs as well.