column radiator problem

[David Stellaman]

Having problems with a designer column radiator that I bought. To cut a story short, it gets hot, all columns are hot to touch, tip, middle and bottom but it doesn't heat the room at all. After about an hour all other rooms are hot but the one with the column rad is cold even though it is hot to touch. The btu rating is 4705 at 60 C. Btu calculations for the room average 3500 so should be plenty. Is there any way of measuring the actual btu output? Do new rads go faulty? Anyone with experience on how to approach the company? Initial enquiries have drawn a blank...


Dave from Siberia

 

[David Stellaman]

Hi Oz, it's a Saunier Duval Fanned flue combI boiler and the temperature on the display is set to 74 degrees. Is this the info you require?

Dave

 

[tamz]

Dug the hot water bottle out last night and it burst because the rubber had perished

It never rains but it pours lol

 

[tamz]

Hi Oz, it's a Saunier Duval Fanned flue combI boiler and the temperature on the display is set to 74 degrees. Is this the info you require?

Dave

Assuming its a std efficiency boiler, set at 74º, the MWT at the radiator in a perfect world would be will be 69º but in reality it will be a wee bit lower, so lets call it 67ºC
If you want your room to be 21º this means the ΔT will be 46ºC
Multiply the output by the correction factor
4705*0.71 = 3340btu (just under a kw which for easy thinking is like one bar of an old electric fire)

The actual output of the radiator reduces slightly as the room heats up.

 

[David Stellaman]

Jeez, and I thought the television repair trade was complicated! :lol: Am I to deduce from your calculations that it is giving out the equivalent heat of a one bar electric fire? Or really the answer I'm looking for is, is this radiator, given the details that have been provided, capable of heating adequately a room of the dimensions given or have I been sold a dud or has it been under calculated by me because I focused on the BTU figures only?
I really don't want to take up a lot more of your time, you guys have been more than helpful.

Thanks, Dave

 

[tamz]

Since you are probably old enough to remember bars on an electric fire, it needs about 1 1/2.
Since you couldn't run them at a 1/2........2 to heat the room and 1 to keep it ticking over.
You just took their outputs at face value without realising it needed adjusting.
The highest a boiler stat can go in this country is 82

Turning your boiler up to max will help in the meantime

 

[Radioman]

[emoji33][emoji33][emoji33][emoji33]2 bars of an electric fire on all night! My Nan would have gone purple! Her stack of "Florins" for the meter would have disappeared toot suite! Guess that gives my age away a bit

 

[David Stellaman]

Thanks guys for your input. Just to end on a funny note regarding electric fires. When I was about 13, (1973) I was left on my own in a cold house with only an electric fire for heat. I switched it on left it for a couple of minutes but the bars didn't go red, so I thought it would be clever to gently put my finger on the bar to see if it was warming up while my other hand was on the metal frame!!! Yep, I yelped like a dog and flew across the room jumped up and ran upstairs in shock. That was one of my nine lives gone! :biggrin5: Didn't put me off messing with electrickery and being a TV engineer for the next forty years!

Dave

 

[Last Plumber]

"Good grief, I thought there was someone knocking on the front door but it was the leccy meter goin round ", said radiomans nan.

My nans was on half and you could hardly see a glow, if I turned it up she'd have a blue fit too.
It was a dangerous business touching those toggle switches.

 

[Radioman]

"Good grief, I thought there was someone knocking on the front door but it was the leccy meter goin round ", said radiomans nan.

My nans was on half and you could hardly see a glow, if I turned it up she'd have a blue fit too.
It was a dangerous business touching those toggle switches.

This does bring back such happy memories of my Nanna. She also had a pay as you go gas meter, I think it took either a sixpence or a shilling. There was always a small stack by the meter which she used to take from and send me up the shops for 10 Embassy and a sherbet dip.
One thing I never understood was when the meter men came and emptied the meters they always gave some of the coins back. When I asked my mum why, she said " people who stick there noses where they are not wanted get them chopped off".

 

[mr.k]

I always explain to the Customer that these rads aren't as efficient as a regular convector rad!

This comes after having fitted 2 in one house & having to change them lol, they were like hot water bottles on the wall, hot to touch but no heat deflected into room!

Hi. I found this to be the case with towel rads too. Probably similar in design and heat output.