Home | Automobiles, Vehicles, Transportation

How Radiator Covers May Help You Afford Christmas Much Easier

By: William Penworthy Click author's name for more of his/her articles

With winter nipping at your nose, radiator covers and radiator cabinets are an idea you may really warm to. As the weather turns increasingly cold and miserable, most of us reach for the radiator controls and thermostat, boosting the heating and making sure we stay warm and comfortable. But with every turn of the radiator control, we increase not just the temperature of our homes, but the size of our heating bills. Fuel costs are spiralling, and the forecast isn’t set to change much.

But radiator covers may well offer an alternative solution - one which is affordable, which adds style and elegance to your home, increases the feeling of warmth in your home very quickly, and may lower your heating bills by a substantial amount. How do radiator cabinets achieve this, and what should you consider if looking into the idea of lowering your heating bills, adding style and elegance to your home, and enjoying the warmth this winter?

Traditional radiators actually do very little radiating of heat at all - it’s mostly convection, sending the warm air straight up to your ceiling where it hangs around, cooling down, and then sinking into the room. Cool air sinks, and warm air rises, and so the warm air only tends to have any effect once it has begun to cool, sinking into the room. To achieve a real feeling of warmth in a room you need to have the radiator on for so long that the cycle of warm air eventually catches up with itself, slowly increasing the ambient temperature of the air throughout the room. The alternative is to sit on top of your radiator, although this is rather uncomfortable and can lead to odd looks when guests arrive.

But how can radiator covers change or improve upon the way in which a radiator works? After all, radiator cabinets don’t even touch the radiator, and make no changes to the pipes or controls. So what’s going on that so many households are enjoying warmer homes whilst at the same time seeing lower fuel bills? The answer is that radiator covers turn a radiator into something that truly does radiate heat, in a much more efficient way.

If you look at a radiator cover you’ll notice three significant things about its design, apart from the style and appearance. The first feature is that there is often a large grill or grille which covers the majority of the face of the radiator cabinet. This may be decorative, and will extend almost the full width and height of the radiator itself. The second feature is a shelf or top to the radiator cabinet. This may be safely used for placing ornaments or pictures for decoration, with no risk of damage or deterioration through heat. The third feature is a gap at the base of the radiator cabinet. So how do these three features relate to each other in helping to improve the efficiency of a radiator, allowing you to turn down the radiator or turn off the heating much sooner, saving you money in fuel?

Radiator cabinets work by drawing in the cooler air which has sunk to floor level in through the gap at the base. The air is quickly warmed by the radiator, and then pushed out through the grill at the front. The shelf above the radiator prevents heat being wasted by being allowed to rise to the ceiling level where it can’t be felt or appreciated. This means that the air drawn up inside the radiator cabinet is heated much more quickly and effectively.

By pushing the heat out through the grille at the front of radiator covers, the warm air is directed to where it is actually needed. With a radiator cabinet in a room, you’ll feel the warmth almost immediately the radiator is switched on, unless you happen to spend your time swinging from the light fixtures or having tea parties on the ceiling in the style of Mary Poppins. The air is made to circulate much more quickly because of the smaller spaces through which it is both drawn in at the base and pushed out through the grills of radiator cabinets.

It is because of the way these three features work together that a room feels much warmer much sooner. This in turn allows you to either turn the heating down, since there’s less need for an immediate blast of heat, or even to turn the heating off altogether much sooner than without radiator covers. By being able to lower your heating or switch it off much sooner you will certainly be able to see significant savings in fuel bills. Indeed, the savings gained through turning your heating down, or off entirely much sooner, are likely to cover the costs of having radiator covers installed in the first place.