Hi there,
We have a 3 seater sofa which is placed about 12cm in front of a convector type radiator in the living room, I had a feel of the back of the sofa and felt it was quite warm, this leads me to believe that it's not really ideal to have the sofa placed there.
However, the room heats up fine...
Would it be worth sticking some radiator foil to the rear of the sofa which is made of wood?
I have a few rolls of it which have been lying around.
Thanks
My gut feeling is that all the energy absorbed by the sofa will be radiated back into the room one way or another so that over a period of time the room would become no colder than it would be with the sofa somewhere else. On the other hand, if you are reflecting heat back into the radiator, the chances are that it will reappear as slightly increased output somewhere else and the living room will lose heat that way. On the other, other hand, I keep my sofa away from my radiator because I like the sensation of radiated heat on my skin more than I like the sensation of gently re-radiated sofa-heat :)
Nick
Better to put the foil on the walls and ceiling. And the windows. ;-)
Doubt Mum would appreciate that :P
I had exactly the same situation and I covered a big piece of MDF with radiator foil and stood it behind the sofa, leaning towards the sofa and about 2cm away from the radiator at the bottom and 15cm away at the top.
I feel sure it make the radiator more effective - I've not done a scientific study of it but for the few pounds it cost I think you'll find it's well worth trying
The sofa will have a low thermal mass so the surface will heat up quickly. There wont be any heat loss to the outside so there is no wastage. I would happily leave it as is. By having a warm surface 4" from the rad surface it may act as a chimney and actually increase the heat output.
The only risk I can see is possible loss of air circulation if the sofa has a closed bottom or skirt which would definitely reduce the output.
If it was a leather sofa I would be concerned about it drying out, so would suggest keep it well fed but you say it has a wooden back.
In article , gremlin_95 writes
Sounds like it should be okay then, the sofa has an open bottom, it is leather but the back is wood. As said, it seems to work fine, you could feel plenty of heat coming out from the top of the radiator when the heating is on :)
Radiators put out convected heat, not radiated. Foil reflects radiated but conducts convected heat.
NT
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