radiator size, help please

uk1simon · May 4, 2014

Hello,

I have a simple question. I'm replacing a radiator in my daughter's bedroom. The current radiator is a 20 yrs old single panel one. It seems to me it's a little bit too big for the room. The size of the radiator is 1600x600mm.
The room size is 3.94x2.71x2.3 (LxWxH), double glazing window (3.6m2 area), loft insulation (50cm+), one wall north facing, the other wall west facing. Insulated brick cavity wall.
I typed in these values in various online calculators and they return btu value between 2100 and 3000. I asked a friend of mine who is a plumber and he says the current radiator is an old iron one and it's not efficient compared to todays standards. He recommended to me to get about 2700btu and said a single panel radiator 500x1100mm should do the job.
I always want to ask twice than getting things wrong.
Any advice?

regards,
Simon

Dotty · May 4, 2014

Which is your external wall?

diamondgas · May 4, 2014

My advice would be to get one the same length a fit a thermostatic radiator valve to it! Saves on decorating 🙂

Dotty · May 4, 2014

diamondgas said:
My advice would be to get one the same length a fit a thermostatic radiator valve to it! Saves on decorating 🙂

More importantly it saves on the need to repipe to fit! You could get a different height radiator though.

uk1simon · May 4, 2014

thanks for your replies.
the room has got two external walls. The window and the radiator are on the north facing wall, don't know whether it matters.
I think I will go for the current size. is it going to be much improvement in comparison to the old one? and is the bigger radiator going to cost me more to run? the boiler will have to heat more water, or the difference will be negligible?

regards,
Simon

Dotty · May 4, 2014

Same amount of water. What makes the difference is the convection fins on the rear of the new radiator increase the amount of heating surface area thereby increasing efficiency.