Can a plumber give me a YES/NO? Rad Sizes

Ginger83

Bedroom 16ft x 15.5ft, 3 external walls, 3 windows (5ft x 3ft, 5ft x 3ft, 5ft x 4ft)
1 rad double 1600mm x 400mm

Bathroom 8ft x 8.5ft, 1 external wall, 1 window (1M x 0.7M)
1 rad single 600mm x 500mm

YES or NO, are they big enough?

Wearb

Ginger83 wrote: »

Bedroom 16ft x 15.5ft, 3 external walls, 3 windows (5ft x 3ft, 5ft x 3ft, 5ft x 4ft)
1 rad double 1600mm x 400mm

Bathroom 8ft x 8.5ft, 1 external wall, 1 window (1M x 0.7M)
1 rad single 600mm x 500mm

YES or NO, are they big enough?

With the limited info provided, a yes or no answer cannot be accurately provided. The heat loss of the rooms is needed along with rad delta t.

From the way you phrased your question, I suspect that that is exactly the sort of answer that you didn’t want, but that is the reality of it.

Tom44

Ginger83 wrote: »

Bedroom 16ft x 15.5ft, 3 external walls, 3 windows (5ft x 3ft, 5ft x 3ft, 5ft x 4ft)
1 rad double 1600mm x 400mm

Bathroom 8ft x 8.5ft, 1 external wall, 1 window (1M x 0.7M)
1 rad single 600mm x 500mm

YES or NO, are they big enough?

There's a few factors required
Hight of ceiling, insulation value of walls and windows and if overall boiler is big enough to heat full house up to required temperature quickly.

But to me, rads are on the economical side, I personally would have gone slightly bigger and fitted thermostatic rad valves.
But their not grossly undersized.
Remember a bedroom should never be as warm as a living room.
Recommended 18°c as oppose to 22°c



But try telling that to my wife :eek:

Dtp1979

Tom44 wrote: »

But try telling that to my wife :eek:

Or any wife Tom

Ginger83

Tom44 wrote: »

There's a few factors required
Hight of ceiling, insulation value of walls and windows and if overall boiler is big enough to heat full house up to required temperature quickly.

But to me, rads are on the economical side, I personally would have gone slightly bigger and fitted thermostatic rad valves.
But their not grossly undersized.
Remember a bedroom should never be as warm as a living room.
Recommended 18°c as oppose to 22°c



But try telling that to my wife :eek:

Sorry all

8 foot ceilings, 300mm walls with 100mm pumped cavity. Insulated slab on external walls 25mm + slab.

BTU calculators suggest they are undersized.

Ginger83

Any more info based on that?

antoinolachtnai

If the calculators say they are undersized, well that’s sort of your answer.

It depends on other things too though. The site, the build and the people who actually live there and their behavior and expectations.

At the end of the day if they don’t heat the room adequately on the coldest day of the year in the experience of the homeowner they (or the heating system more generally) are undersized. If they do they aren’t.

Sleeper12

The way I see it is if you are comfortable in the rooms then they are fine. If you are cold in the rooms and want to have it out with the builders / plumber you only need the industry calculator to prove that you are right. It's difficult for plumbers to comment without seeing the job.

aujopimur

When I was installing heating, I always went up a size on the rads.
I added 50% to the one in the living room, we never had any complaints about lack of heat.

Ginger83

Thanks for the replies.

I am waiting on a few reports, we have had a thermal imaging test and air tightness test carried out.

After the xmas hols i intend to ask an independent building company out to check everything out.

antoinolachtnai

I would really be careful about spending too much on professional services here. A decent plumber could add two extra radiators in the time it takes to measure everything up and make the calculations in relation to a room or two.

If the boiler can’t keep the house warm generally then that is a bigger issue, certainly.

Ginger83

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I would really be careful about spending too much on professional services here. A decent plumber could add two extra radiators in the time it takes to measure everything up and make the calculations in relation to a room or two.

If the boiler can’t keep the house warm generally then that is a bigger issue, certainly.

Yes i was thinking about asking a plumber to replace the bathroom rad for a double and possibly teeing off the bedroom rad to ad a 2nd rad there.

The testing was done on the whole house so i suppose it will give us a picture on performance and a BER rating overall.

Tom44

BER assessors leave a lot to be desired in 90‰ of my experiences.

Call a good plumber / boiler service engineer.
Person "HAS TO BE GOOD AT BOTH"

antoinolachtnai

The BER rating, even if done to an astounding level of accuracy will not really determine if the radiators are undersized.

Unless you are in a position to do a major refurb I don’t know if the surveys you are doing will do you much good. The plumber might be the best bet.

Evan Rojas

It is very difficult to say yes or no to your given limited info.According to me, you have to take advice from a professional plumber.The plumber will tell you exactly it is big enough or not.

Ginger83

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

The BER rating, even if done to an astounding level of accuracy will not really determine if the radiators are undersized.

Unless you are in a position to do a major refurb I don’t know if the surveys you are doing will do you much good. The plumber might be the best bet.

Have no problem redoing work if needs be, currently have an extension built for disabled use and cant use it due to the cold.

Tom44

At last.

You've answered your own question.
Room as it is, is to cold. And that's that.
Extra heat needed.

Do all the calculations you want, but the simple answer as it stands is the room is to cold.

Wearb

Tom44 wrote: »

At last.

You've answered your own question.
Room as it is, is to cold. And that's that.
Extra heat needed.

Do all the calculations you want, but the simple answer as it stands is the room is to cold.

BUT: if the system is at maximum supply capacity (boiler size or supply pipe size) at present, then putting in a bigger rad will not give any improvement whatsoever.
We have all seen it, especially on sun-rooms, where the new rads are tee'd off the nearest one (usually another high demand one like the existing living-room/kitchen area.

Tom44

Wearb wrote: »

BUT: if the system is at maximum supply capacity (boiler size or supply pipe size) at present, then putting in a bigger rad will not give any improvement whatsoever.
We have all seen it, especially on sun-rooms, where the new rads are tee'd off the nearest one (usually another high demand one like the existing living-room/kitchen area.

All I said was "Extra heat needed " which is true.

All good plumbers could analysis the situation if they are "on site" to see it.
Forget the calculator, just call a good plumber is my recommendation.

Wearb

Tom44 wrote: »

All I said was "Extra heat needed " which is true.

All good plumbers could analysis the situation if they are "on site" to see it.
Forget the calculator, just call a good plumber is my recommendation.

Agreed. This is a case where you could easily waste money with a wrong diagnosis.

Ginger83

Guys we've found a major flaw in the construction of the roof.

Our roof is a warm roof and if you take at a look at this video at 7.10 it shows insulation between the joists from the fascia to the inner block wall. Ours is empty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyu3RKdaKTY