Had no clue where to stick this so I've gone with Engineers , since I've just been googling R ratings of materials! Just rushed to mount a radiator on a wall, a cheap nasty 'designer one' that was a pain to fit - stood back to admire my work and instantly realised my mistake...there's an integrated fridge on the other side of the wall. I went to check the wall for insulation since there's not really anywhere else to place a rad in the room and the wall appears to be just a sheet of 18mm ply and one, possibly two plasterboards on stud. It's directly on the other side of the airflow route/space for the fridgefreezer. I suspect the answer is it can't stay there but optimistic the plaster will deflect enough of the heat and the ply's not a great conductor so wondering if I'll get away with it. What are people's thoughts? I don't really want to test it and plumb it in and then have to remove it if it's an obvious no no, but might have to if there's a fair chance it's ok.
Install a layer of foil insulation behind the radiator and behind the fridge. Something like this https://www.toolstation.com/ybs-general-purpose-thermawrap-insulation/p16779.
Thanks, that was my first thought, but it's one of those vertical radiators with slats so the tin foil sheen will catch you eye everytime you look at it. If they did a black one I might get away with it. I thought about some 25mm insulated board on the other side behind the fridge but it would halve the volume of air behind the firdge for cooling - I could try the thermawrap there but reckon if the heats ingressed that far the whole cabinet will be roasting. Might have to just give it a go and see if the fridge overheats as the whole place is open plan - short of putting it on the ceiling there are few options.
I would tend to agree. The wall will conduct the heat away. If its brick then that's significant thermal mass.
Cheers guys, I'm going to give it a go. Will let you know if the fridge blows up or house burns down! It's a 30mm plywood (and gypsum) wall. If it was brick I wouldn't think twice, but when you walk on an 18mm ply floor with heating pipes under, you can feel them ...even though wood isn't a great conductor. However they're above the heat source rather than side on.
If the fridge the other side of the wall is an integrated fridge, you wouldn't have 25mm of space anyway. at the most you might have 15mm. Either way, i wouldn't worry about it...........an oven next to the fridge would radiate more heat than the radiator and that would be no problem either.