Historically, radiators were fitted in the coldest part of the room — the exterior wall — where cold air would enter and drop to the floor. In times when double glazing was almost unheard of, placing the radiator here helped to eliminate the cold draught that would often come through the window. However, with double glazing standard in almost every home, we now have the freedom to position our radiators almost anywhere we choose. To ensure you get the best from your radiator and allow for optimum heat output, there are a number of important points to remember, though….
Wherever you choose to put it, try not to position your radiator behind large items of furniture, such as the sofa or cabinets. Doing so will restrict the flow of hot air around the room. Keep the immediate area surrounding the radiator as clutter-free as possible to allow the heat to successfully travel and permeate the room. If your radiator is swamped by floor-length drapes, the heat is trapped, and cannot fill the room.
Similarly, mid-length curtains can restrict the heat output of convector radiators which blow air from the top. Try and ensure your radiator is positioned away from curtains and upholstery that could affect its performance. In some instances, particularly in smaller rooms, positioning a radiator behind a door may be your only option.
However, this depends on the temperature of the space that the door connects to. For example, if the door leads out into the hallway which is usually quite cold, then the heat will go straight to the colder area. Leaving the room that you are trying to warm up with no heat when the door is open. This is mainly only true where the windows are older and let in a lot of cold air.
This system of heating is also inefficient and unless you have any planning regulations that prevent changing windows, we'd recommend installing newer, better insulating windows. The traditional place to position your radiator is the coldest part of the room. Whether that's beneath your window or against the wall.
This is due to conduction, with incoming cold air causing more effective heat conduction and pushing the hot air from your radiator into the middle of the room. However, times have changed and insulation design has improved leaps and bounds, so in many homes there aren't specific 'cold spots'.
In many older properties, the pipework for radiators will be found under windows, as this is where the radiator had to be placed in the past. Even as insulation has improved, many people feel it's too difficult or costly to move the pipework around so simply keep their radiator in the same place. Despite this, with the help of a plumber, moving a radiator to another part of your room can be a stress free job.
Despite improvements to insulation, many people will still choose to put their radiator below the window. This is a decision which often comes down to available space. The area under a radiator is traditionally somewhere that you can't place any furniture, so it will often make logical sense to fill this space with a radiator.
However, there's now a huge range of different radiator types available which can help you utilise the available space you have. If you are short on horizontal space, choose a vertical radiator which will maximise all the available floor to wall space with a smaller footprint.
We also stock a great range of slimline radiators which will produce great heat outputs in a smaller design. Is it easy to move a radiator? Curtains above a radiator? Long or short? It can depend on what furniture you wish to place in the rooms. On our last project radiators had been placed on the internal walls and we had to move all of them, as the placing of furniture was impossible with them anywhere other than under the windows. So, entirely depends on the space available!
If you have modern windows put them wherever you like. We have 2 in our lounge, one behind a sofa and one under the window. The curtains slightly cover the radiator but it still gets really warm. I've decided to put the radiator under the window. Here it will be out of the way, leave a wall space open for further decoration. This is something that we come up against all the time.
The default setting for radiators is under the window but from an aesthetic point of view this minimises the options for the soft furnishings as no one wants to heat the back of a curtain. We are about to start a project with this issue and are in the enviable position of being able to move the radiators.
However, we are going taller and narrower rather than wide. We are also scheming the radiator finish to complement the wall finish so that they don't compete for wall space and we can still place furniture against the wall, as well as leaving the space under the window free and clear so we will be making long curtains to give a more elegant look to the room. I think radiators work well under windows especially with double glazing. I always have lightweight floor length curtains with a matching roller blind that can be pulled down to below the top of the radiator which helps direct the heat away from the window.
You're right ladyrimmofpinn. That's a great way to frame and dress the window whilst working with the radiator position. I personally favour roman blinds over rollers though, because it is an opportunity to create a solution with beautiful fabrics, possibly a coordinate. However, if budget is tight then a roller works well, or indeed you can laminate fabric and create a roller blinds, as long as it's not too wide.
How to address the dress curtains differs depending on the scenario. You can be lightweight and airy with lovely voiles or you can have something interlined and full to balance the style of your room or the size of the window. Flat panel radiators, primarily a source of radiant heat, are consequently placed below windows to balance out the cold surface above.
This is of course, a consideration during the day when the glass is exposed to admit light. At night the window can be insulated from the room by shutters, blinds or curtains, preferably leaving the radiator exposed. Where the radiator is finned to encourage heating of the air and thus the room by convection the situation does however become more complicated. The warm air rising from the radiator will counteract the tendency for cold downdraughts to form in front of the window but the temperature gradient through the window will be greater and the amount of heat lost therefore also greater.
The window-wall is naturally rather limited in practical uses. Tony Whitehead, Wakefield tony. The second reason for locating radiators under windows is that it allows greater flexibility when arranging furniture, which one does not normally place beneath windows. One way to avoid too much heat loss is to have a window sill that projects well over the radiator and curtains that stop on top of the sill.
With this arrangement, the heat is directed out into the room instead of behind the curtain and out through the window. Obviously, heat loss could be further reduced with double-glazing, especially if it is of the Low-E variety and with argon gas instead of air in the cavity.
The air in the immediate vicinity of the window is cooled, and since it it now heavier, convects or sinks to the floor, from where it proceeds to cross the floor as a chill draught. If the room is heated at a point opposite the window, this draught across the floor is accelerated by upwards convection created by the heat source. To combat this, central heating radiators are placed under windows.
This reverses or neutralises the draught, thus giving a much more even distribution of heat in the room, hopefully without draughts. Sadly, windows are a great way to waste heat irrespective of radiator placement. Thick curtains are a great aid to fuel economy, but remember to tuck them in behind the radiator! Chris Green, Hounslow, Middx.
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