radiator in attic room?

emilbronte

Hi,
I'm looking at buying a house that has a converted attic room. It's a lovely room but has no radiators -all the other rooms in the house have them. My friend said that this was because you can't have a radiator at the same level as the water tank so I won't be able to install one, is this true? If so, what's the best way to heat this room? It's an old house.

Micky Dolenz

You friend is right, either raise the tank feed the heating system at least a metre above highest rad or change the system from open vented to sealed.

Joey the lips

As mick said open vented you cant but sealed you can. What type of boiler have you.

On the rads most plumbers install long rads. it is though that it was for astetic reasons. As the rads fit in under the eves however i find this can sometimes cause problems with beds up against the rads. You know...kids or visitors burning there feet ;-)

emilbronte

Thank you both for the info:) I think the radiators are all sealed, I'll check this week, would that mean I could install a radiator in the attic without raising the tank? Which are better, open vented or sealed?

Sparkpea

sealed is a better system

you will know the difference by seeing a red pressurised drum expansion vessel rather than a small cold water storage tank. The pressure vessel could be in the roofspace, beside the boiler, or hotpress. unless you have a sealed system gas boiler then you won't see the drum as its built into the boiler I think.

Buford T Justice

Why would a sealed system be better than an open vented one?

ted1

will the room be tree often. An electric oil filled rad is an option. If it's in every day use it may be costly in the long run. How ever if the roof is well insulated you may find the heating rising from the rest of the house keeps it nice and cosy

Sparkpea

Fingers McGee wrote: »

Why would a sealed system be better than an open vented one?

because it stops the expansion pipe pumping over into the header tank causing oxidation and other problems. most sealed systems need topped up manually so if you had a leak while on holiday for example then only the water thats in the system would leak out and not keep constantly filling in (because most people forget to turn their mains off!) also people say a pressurised sealed system heats up quicker. in this case.. radiators can be heated above the expansion vessel whereas a open vented system can't do that.