Alurads or Solo heaters

shelly4197

Hi can any one help me. I'm building quite a big extension and was thinking or installing either Alurads or Solo heaters. Can anyone give me feedback on either of the products please? I've searched everywhere to try and find out the pros and cons of each and can't find anything and the sales people have been no help. Any info would be much appreciated.

items

Any time I have fitted an Alu rad it was more for a design feature, they are great rads with more output than traditional rads, because of price people tend to keep Alu rads down to one or two fitted in a living room or kitchen. You say you have a big extension, if the extension is one big room then Alu rads are a good choice depending on size of room.

Solo rads, I'll take it you mean Myson type fan assisted convector heaters, last time I've fitted those was in a Castle, rooms with Myson heaters had massive high ceilings and fan assisted heater was the only way to heat room due to sheer size. Fan assisted heater make a sound when on and generally more bulky than normal rads. You have to think of electrics too, heaters must have a fused spur switch beside each one.

If extension is just one room, size room up for heatloss and match calculation to Alu rad, if extension is more than one room fit normal rads in less important rooms and use Alu for important room / rooms.

I've taken out a good few fan assisted heaters in homes and replaced with standard type rad all down to home owner not liking sound or look of fan assisted.

shelly4197

Hi and thanks for the info. The room will be about 6 meters wide by about 8 meters long - a kitchen/dinning/living room. The ceiling will be about 9 ft high and one wall is all glass. The builder is pushing the solo radiators http://www.energyrl.ie/solo.cfm on us but I'm worried because I have two people in the house with asthma and as far as I can see these heaters blow out air and that means blowing dust around as well. They seem to heat really well though. The Alu rad option is because is looks like I need about 5000 watts to heat the place and to put in regular rads would take up too much space. Do you know if it is ok to have Alu Rads in this room and regular rads in the hall and the rest of the house. I just don't want to make a very expensive mistake.

items

As long as extension heat loss figures match up with rad output than you can go the Alu / standard route. If you have drawings bring them to rad supplier they should be able to work out the correct figures. I couldn't do it from here, lots of other things to factor in, from windows to number of outside walls, ventilation, insulation and so on.

Glass can cause problems, lots of glass can cause even more, might be a bit late now but you could of had underfloor installed in extension, zoned separate from heating system, underfloor works ideal in large open areas with large glass windows.

Choice is down to you really, least you have some ideas, examples etc, fan heaters are like a last alternative, very seldom used in domestic (house holds) more public buildings, pubs, hospital waiting rooms etc.

hydronic

regarding the dust issue, Solo operates at a very low air flow velocity and will not add to the dust problem in the room. On the point by "items" the majority of Solo units sold in Ireland are for domestic applications about 90% as they are a much more eenergy effecient method of heating.

shelly4197

Hi hydronic and thanks for the reply. Do have solo units yourself or can you tell me anymore about them.

hydronic

Hi, yes I do have solo rads fitted in my house some since about 2003 and the newer type for about 2 years.

the goon

Hi guys, just looking to see if anyone has any advice re the solo heaters?
The threads I have seen are quite old. I am in process of converting a garage to living room. It is 6m long by 3m wide. However we took out the false ceiling and now at the apex it is nearly 6m high. It is quite a large space to heat and so am looking at what options are out there without going down the route of underfloor heating.

All advice very much appreciated!

Jambo

the goon wrote: »

Hi guys, just looking to see if anyone has any advice re the solo heaters?
The threads I have seen are quite old. I am in process of converting a garage to living room. It is 6m long by 3m wide. However we took out the false ceiling and now at the apex it is nearly 6m high. It is quite a large space to heat and so am looking at what options are out there without going down the route of underfloor heating.

All advice very much appreciated!

@the goon what option did you go for in the end ? Im in a similar situation with a simlar size room and am thinking of solo rads or vertical alu rads

the goon

A combination of things. We eventually decided to knock into the front room from garage as the garage itself is only three meters wide. So now it is a T shaped room 6m by 3m in garage and 3.5 by 3.5 in front room section. There is a chimney in front room part so we will put a stove in there. Then because of the overall size of room, we are putting in an aircon unit to help heat such a big space quickly. We plan on using two solo rads in conjunction with the stove to maintain heat once aircon has warmed place up.