Heres a question for the expert plumbers. I'm putting in a very basic gravity system, feed and return with 2 rads and a tank with a coil for hot water for now. Will be expanding the system at a later date. I have some old rads I want to re-use (the effects of living in Yorkshire for too long!! lol) However the position of one necessitates a narrow rad but I want more heat out of it than a narrow rad would provide. So can I use a longer rad rotated through 90 degrees? (mounting brackets would be altered) I would be feeding in top left and out bottom right and would alter blanking plugs as required. Your thoughts? Thanks
No reason it won't work but might look a little odd. Water goes in one side and out the other- orientation won't affect that. Fixing is going to be your main problem.
I would have thought that feeding in from the bottom would be better... I imagine you'd get a more even flow through the radiator that way. But I'm only DIY! Cando
Expert plumber? Did someone mention me? Firstly I would say it will work, but I wouldn’t do it. The biggest problem is the radiator could fall off the wall unless you can have extra brackets to hold it from left and right hand side. Obviously full of water it will be heavy. You can feed the pipes as you say, flow in top, return in diagonal bottom. That is best way for any radiator and gives slightly better output. Pipes only in bottom are also fine. Only thing you can’t do is join both pipes to the top of a rad. I would just buy a proper brand new vertical radiator (suitable for gravity). If this is a solid fuel boiler then got to consider - Will the 2 rads and one cylinder going to be enough for the output of the fire? Is the indirect cylinder suitable for gravity circulation? Will the pipework and ventilation be to boiler instructions and regs? Will the pipes to rads be piped in such a way to prevent air in them?
Thanks guys That's great just wanted to be sure. Heat... yes its a solid fuel boiler and there will be a combination of 2 "heat sink rads" always on (no valves). Its a 25kw boiler 18kw to central heating and 7Kw to room/cooking they recommend a minimum 10% of output as the heat sink min and our heat sink rads = 20% so hopefully this should be enough... Re brackets. I will be re-engineering them plus they're going onto a brick wall Thanks for all the other pointers re air etc. will remember that when installing. So all being well we should be good to go.
With only the 2 rads and cylinder you haven’t much for the excess heat. The heat sink is really just a minimum requirement in a power failure and I would want extra radiators fitted to take away more heat. 25kw is quite powerful.
With only the 2 rads and cylinder you haven’t much for the excess heat. The heat sink is really just a minimum requirement in a power failure and I would want extra radiators fitted to take away more heat. 25kw is quite powerful.