Hi all. I have a wide bay window that I want to fit radiator(s) to. The room size (12' x 14' x 10'height) requires 7560 btu but thats not factoring in the gas fire. The window sill is 54cm above the floor. The bay (not rounded) measurements are about 70cm x 115cm x 70cm (full width
2.25m)The Myson web site infers that its possible. There is a web site
Any of you got experience of this?
thanks,
Arthur
A bay window is a window built with several sides; a bow window is one window build with a curve.
You can fit a series of smaller ones in either to get around awkward shapes.
But why fit a radiator in a window?
You would be heating the outer wall of the building. Even if well insulated, it would be more sensible to have it on an inside wall. And it would be nearer the boiler too I imagine.
I've looked at it.
Myson certainly do do customised radiators but they are very expensive
- I would be surprised if it were less than £1k for something like this.
In a house that I had some years ago, there was a bay window with angles where we looked at sourcing a radiator to fit. I couldn't find a price under £1500 and that was early 1980s.
In the end, I found a radiator type where there was one in the range that fitted the centre section pretty much exactly. I then found two others that fitted the sides. I butted them fairly close together and joined them at the bottom and top using chromed male to copper fittings (no valves) and short lengths of 22mm chromed tube bent to the required angle.
I was a little concerned about water flow and heat distribution among the three radiators but it worked well - there was no perceivable difference between the three in terms of temperature, although measured it was about 3 degrees between equivalent places at each end radiator.
Visually, it was acceptably OK and not really noticable compared with a single radiator.
In article , 51 writes
I've stayed in a place that had one and it had been done very neatly by cut and shut, done by an old hand type plumber who did it as a bit of a speciality (it was a while ago). No idea of price but it scared me a bit that it was a non-standard solution wrt maintainability.
I realise you have limited space but in a similar situation I have compensated for the window loss with a small single convector in the middle of the window and heated the main part of the room separately. A TRV on the window rad stops it getting too hot there when the curtains are drawn.
Normal wisdom is that a radiator elsewhere in the room starts rapid convection around the room. Hot air rises from the rad to the ceiling, air is cooled and sinks by the window. This then sets up a nice cold draft across the floor...
My experience shows that this does happen in the real world.
Apparently, the couriers will do it for free if you get one mail order. The snag is you can't specify in advance exactly where you want the bends.
All a radiator is, is a container through which hot water flows with a large surface area.
There are many ways to achieve this short of buying a custom built jobbie.
Line the walls with insulation, lay some UFH pipe in there and plaster over it?
Get a load of copper pipe, bend it to shape and make parallel bars, joint it all up with T connectors..and get it chromed at an electro-platers?
Get a scrap car door and seal it carefully, spray it up in magenta, and fit pipes to it. Get an award for design. Better still get some electrc fans and the front and rad. off a 1910 rolls royce complete with lady and chrome.
The mind boggles.
Ah, you've been to the Guggenheim haven't you .
It boggled mine.
DG
In article , The Natural Philosopher writes
. . . and the point you were making was :-?
On 12 Nov 2006 03:59:26 -0800 someone who may be "Weatherlawyer" wrote this:-
To avoid cold draughts caused by the mechanism already outlined. This is not such a problem if the building has more than single glazing.
I don't know where you are geographically, but about 15 years ago I purchased two such radiators from
I dropped in a template of the bays (lining paper and sellotape), and a few days later picked up the rads.
Basically they were standard "Warmastyle" round top rads which had been cut (top and bottom - on the outward face), bent, welded and repainted.
I don't recall it being expensive, and it was a competent job.
David
a local car welder should be able to do that for a small fraction of
1500. And respray it for you. Just check they leak test it before you get it back :)NT
On Sun, 12 Nov 2006 14:42:41 -0000 someone who may be "Vortex" wrote this:-
A house that used to be in the family had a double panel radiator which had been modified in much the same way, with an angled bit at each end in order to fit into a bay window. Certainly a neat and competent job which lasted for 30 odd years between installation and the time the house was sold.
The alternative of using three radiators, which has been outlined by another poster, is another way of doing much the same thing by DIY. However, with increased insulation such things are less necessary in many houses.
In a house currently in the family the two bow windows have single panel radiators, which have been rolled to the correct radius. Obviously they don't have convector fins on the back. I assume there are still places capable of rolling things into curves. They look rather pleasing, just as the bay window radiator did, because they are obviously made specially for the job.
Look at
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Also
I recently had a 80 inch (old money) curved by a firm in north london (Ace Engineering), suprisingly it only cost £42.00 + vat. This firm also bends rads by cutting and rewelding. My rad was only with them for 48 hours and came back in the required shape and resprayed. All from a template made from lining paper.
Worth trying you local metalwork/engineering firms.
Alec
Not a bad idea.
A
What was the length of the distance between the rads when complete? I would assume 5" to be the minumum practical width bearing in mind the difficulty of bending a short length of chrome pipe to such an angle.
Arthur
It was a long time ago, but IIRC, the gap was around 100mm.
The pipe was initially cut longer for bending and then cut to the correct length.
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