Heating registers directly below cold windows

[Walter Cohen]

I have a house approximately 50 years old. The heating system is a hot water system which heats water and pushes it through a series of registers in each room. Unfortunately many of the registers (about two feet in height from floor to top) are located directly beneath windows.

In my bedroom I have heavy pleated window curtains that I draw closed at night. Seems to me that the curtains look a bit puffy or inflated during the heating season and it is almost like they are puffy because they catch/trap the rising radiant heat from just below the bottom of the curtain (where the register is). I have this feeling that the heat is rising/escaping up into/behind the curtains and right in front of the [cold] window glass instead of up/out into the room.

Is there anything I can buy at a home improvement store to tuck the bottom of the curtains in towards the wall or perhaps to attach to the top of the register to deflect the heat up/away from the register? I tried holding back the curtains more towards the window/wall and I can feel the heat now flowing in front of the curtains instead of behind them.

Thanks, Walter

[HeatMan]

Hot Water BaseBoard? (aka HWBB) Two feet high?

I can't see it from here, but it's possible.

Shorter curtains?

What I said before...

Yer welcome.

[Charles Spitzer]

i've seen scoop sort of mechanisms that are attached to the register and can redirect the heat. typically used if the register is under a couch. i would bet that a local borg would have them. search for sku 253190 at

regards, charlie cave creek, az

[Walter Cohen]

That is for forced hot air, which I don't have. I have radiant hot-water heat with a radiator at least 24 inches wide.

Thanks, Walter

[robson]

mine are similar and are right below my windows - where they should be. i got rid of the curtains and put in blinds.

[Walter Cohen]

This is more in line with what I need but still not a good fit as I don't have a typical register (on the floor). My registers are on the wall.

What would make better sense for me to get/do is somehow push the bottom of the drapes in towards the wall/window so that the rising heat goes in front of them, not behind them.

I may have to devise a solution myself, which may not be elegant but it would at least be functional, IMHO.

Thanks, Walter

[Erma1ina]

Could you use one of the width-adjustable deflectors made for the small rectangular floor registers?

They attach to the registers using magnets. It seems to me you should be able to attach them to the top of your wall registers, with the air flow deflected down. Since they would only cover the top part of the wall register, they would still allow good air flow with the net effect more perpendicular to the wall.

Here's a link to the kind of deflector I'm talking about. I think they're easy to find in hardware and big-box stores.

[Erma1ina]

Sorry, I should have read the entire thread -- my suggestion had already been made and rejected since you weren't talking about forced air registers.

[Walter Cohen]

I have blinds on the windows and curtains in front of them. The more I think about it I'll probably have to fashion perhaps just a straight cord running the width of the bottom of the curtains to keep them flush against the wall (between the top of the register and the window sill). I suppose I can just use thumbtacks to keep the curtain bottoms in place.

[v]

Well, yes, go ahead and DIY. The original problem is entirely self imposed anyway. There is no law requiring those particular curtains - both "puffy" and long - having them is a CHOICE.

Your radiators ("registers" are what the grilles that blow air are called) are in exactly the proper place engineering-wise. Then the decorator screwed up the heating system with the choice of curtains (or is that "drapes"?).

-v.

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