stupid radiators

[psocoptera]

Yes, it's the time of the month when I complain about the cold again. (::sideeyes my hormones::) I am starting to suspect that whoever built our house was an idiot. The radiators are almost all located directly beneath windows, and the metal vents on the fronts are all angled up. Up? Heat doesn't need any help to go up! How about *down*, to encourage the air to actually go out into the room a little before rising straight up? If I want to stand in front of a window and lean my head against the glass I can be *toasty warm*, seriously, WHAT. (I really like having curtains/shades open during the day to get some light in here, but we definitely need to put heavy curtains over all these windows at night, because this is just ridiculous.)

Comments

[irilyth]

I was wondering about this recently too. TSOR turns up some interesting theories -- http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/why-do-builders-put-radiators-under-windows-6009.html for example says

"Here's why: the air near the window (or walls) is chilled due to heat loss out through to the outside. The chilled air drops towards the floor.; and left unchecked, this causes drafts throughout the whole room.

By putting the heater under the dropping chilled air, it can best counteract the air flow -- the heated air mixes with the chilled air and then moves throughout the room better.

If the heater/radiator is located near the inside of the room, it would warm the air and it would move in the same direction as the chilled drafts, and this would not be as effective at warming the whole room."

So, who knows. I agree that it seems vexing. :^p Should we get a little air-circulating fan? (http://amzn.com/B000YKH090 ?)

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

Circulating the air makes a huge difference. We have well insulated walls (as good as you can get with blown-in celluslose) and on really cold days I can feel the difference in air temp between the floor and ceiling. If I'm home and its really cold, I'll turn the ceiling fan on (in reverse) to a low setting to push the warm air down. It takes about 30min, but it warms the whole room up.

Curtains also make a big difference. We have sheer privacy curtains on our windows, and even just the thin gauzy fabric is enough to slow the cold air coming off the windows. Not as good as real curtains or thermal curtains, but if I pull the sheer away from the window, I can feel the cold breeze coming off.