The Radiator Calculator The Pros And Cons

By Author: Edward Hall
Total Articles: 93
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Today with the many advantages of the internet to gain knowledge and heightened awareness of how to do or what to buy, the practice of calculating your own BTU to purchase radiators for your home has become common place with the radiator calculator found on many web sites.

With the choice of designer radiators on the market today, including the traditional cast iron radiator and the traditional towel rail, many people are buying these items direct and not leaving themselves dependent upon the plumber turning up with the plainer standard alternative purchased from the local plumbers merchant. We are getting a lot more discerning and adventurous regarding our radiator choice for the home.

When calculating your own BTU requirements it is important to realise that a BTU calculation is important to get right and the best person to advise anyone is a plumbing or heating engineer on site as each home is different with many variables that can affect the BTU calculation. A wrong BTU calculation for any room can leave you without sufficient heat during a cold snap or caused you to have wasted money on a radiator that is ...
... far too powerful for your room space.

If your radiators are chosen too large for each room space they will be less economical to run and indeed some installers will get around the complex issue of heat loss calculations by offering radiators that are too big and suggest thermostatic valves so you can turn the temperature down, this is not ideal.

BTU is an abbreviation for British Thermal Units and most heat loss calculations are presented as BTU requirements or wattage requirements.

The size of radiator required for a room space is dependent upon 2 factors, firstly the temperature that you want your radiators to be able to maintain which is a relatively straight forward task and secondly the heat loss from your room space. Heat loss calculations are not so straight forward and are quite complex as you need to consider many factors per room.

So which temperature do you want your individual room spaces to have? The recommended heat requirement for a lounge area is different to a bedroom area and most self calculate BTU calculators will work on 21 degrees centigrade for the living areas and 16 degrees centigrade for the sleeping room space. It is always best to use a radiator calculator that defines the use of the room space and not one that just asks for the volume size of each room not taking into account its use.

Heat loss calculations are dependent upon several variables unique to your home, the wall insulation, number of windows and if they are double glazed or not, north or south facing position, the number of outside walls per room, and indeed the floor that the room is on as an upper floor will have less heat loss as hot air rises and it will benefit from the lower floor heated space. Not all self calculate BTU calculators available on various web sites will take into account all these factors and this is why it is always best to confer with a professional on site regarding the calculations or confer with a reputable company before finalising your calculations. It is always best to double check your calculations.

With many years in the heating and plumbing industry Edward Hall has been writing on such subjects as cast iron radiators, traditional radiators and the radiator calculator imparting his vast knowledge on the subject.