Fo years, houses like ours were built with bay windows had around 8' long curved radiators made of thick steel under them. I'm sure some houses in our road which were all built at the same time, still have them.
The heat not only went out through the cavity walls but also up behind the curtains.
After we'd had double glazing fitted, when we had the heating and radiators changed we had much smaller radiators put on the opposite walls.
I have a shelf over the radiator in the front room for my two vintage jukebox wall boxes (only "free" wall), I use to select mp3s to play through my vintage hifi. I glued foil to the underside of the shelf to deflect some of the heat rising from the radiator. It is quite effective.
I remember in 1971, we had just arrived in London end November. Then the electricity strikes came, 3 hours on, 3 hours off. We had a gas fire in the lounge and luckily a gas stove. It was sooo cold for us but I don't remember it as being unbearable. Of course it was "our" 3 hours just when we got home from work at 6.30pm. It was so dark!! We survived. Now, I couldn't bear it.
In regular windows it's the spot with the greatest heat exchange, the least insulation, the coldest air in winter, so it does make sense to heat that air and circulate it out into the room from that point. If you have triple glazed windows and proper insulation, you shouldn't have a freezing area that needs most attention.
I tuck the thick window curtains behind the rad so hopefully more of the heat will radiate into the room and not be lost through the windows to heat the wind. I have old double glazed windows that probably need replacing. It's an expensive decision.
I remember in 1971, we had just arrived in London end November. Then the electricity strikes came, 3 hours on, 3 hours off. We had a gas fire in the lounge and luckily a gas stove. It was sooo cold for us but I don't remember it as being unbearable. Of course it was "our" 3 hours just when we got home from work at 6.30pm. It was so dark!! We survived. Now, I couldn't bear it.
Whenever electricity power losses are mentioned it brings back memories of the seventies and the miners' strikes. I was the general manager of a large superstore. When the power went off we had nothing, no UPS in those days. No light and no heat in the store. Just an old generator that supplied power to the refrigeration, run by a diesel engine and that didn't always fire up when you tried to start it.
It was in the days of electro/mechanical cash registers. With no power you could still operate the tills with a handle. So we could continue to trade firstly by candle light but after a few days under the few dozen camping gas lights I managed to buy.
Of course at times power to the TV companies transmitters was lost, so you had no TV and often no light for hours.
On one occasion when the TV went off the previous evening, in the following morning I was talking to one of the sales assistants who was a very nice Irish girl. I asked her how she got on at home the previous evening as many people had no gas, just electric cooking.
She said "It was cold and dark, but the worst thing was there was no TV. I bet that Mr Heath had a portable TV he could watch!"
I already told you,no idea why builders used to put rads under Windows. My lounge window is big,so I have "winter" curtains, they're up now,they look like wool,thick,lined, slightly fluffy,big grey check, and right down to the floor,and throws on the sofas!
Perception of temperature (for humans) is made up of 3 components: the temperature of the air in contact with your skin (as measured by a thermostat on your heating system), the speed at which that air is moving and the temperature of the surfaces your skin can 'see' with a direct line of sight (radiant heat/cooling). We are sensitive especially to differences in the radiant heating - it makes us uncomfortable if our backs are cold and our faces hot, or our heads are warm and our feet are cold. Unless you have triple glazing, so as a rule historically, the window is the coldest surface in a room. The radiator is the warmest, therefore putting them together means the average radiant temperature of that side of the room is evened out which is more comfortable.
Modern windows have higher internal surface temperatures and modern radiators have a higher convective output, relative to the radiant (i.e. they have fins on the back, instead of the old single panel ones) so the benefits of putting them together now are less and the problems (warm air heating up the local neighbourhood) are greater. But old habits die hard.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
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“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Modern windows have higher internal surface temperatures and modern radiators have a higher convective output, relative to the radiant (i.e. they have fins on the back, instead of the old single panel ones) so the benefits of putting them together now are less and the problems (warm air heating up the local neighbourhood) are greater. But old habits die hard.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”