Radiators

[Guest erichetherington]

I,m on a lunch break ( typical bank holiday! ) from painting the radiators in the house. Can any-one explain why they are always white, I offered the sugestion that they should be a dark colour -preferably mat black but was out voted. Surely mat black would be more efficient and save the world from global warming

[Mitch]

Your right Eric, black would be better for the radiant heat transfer, but i think cosmetically white or light colours will always win, though ours our a cream colour,

 

Mitch

[Guest macca]

I,m on a lunch break ( typical bank holiday! ) from painting the radiators in the house. Can any-one explain why they are always white, I offered the sugestion that they should be a dark colour -preferably mat black but was out voted. Surely mat black would be more efficient and save the world from global warming

 

You could pain the back of them black.....? Would that help?

[Guest erichetherington]

I like the idea of painting the backs black, but not the prospect of draining the system to take them off the wall to do. Worth remembering in case we ever move or have a new system.

[geoff shep]

They are misnamed though - they aren't really radiators, they are actually convectors. There was a phase I seem to remember of putting foil or shiney stuff behind them to reflect any radiant heat back into the room.

[Guest timswait]

They radiate, conduct and convect, although convection is the primary heat transfer mechanism you will still improve their effieciency by painting them matt black to improve their radiative efficiency. It's pure aesthetics that they're white. Painting the the back black will improve the heat transfer efficiency from the radiator, but beware if it's mounted to an exterior wall. You're just heating up the wall, so some of the heat will be lost outside through that. Painting the back of the radiator black AND mounting some of that shiny silver stuff to the wall behind it should avoid that problem.

[Guest erichetherington]

Perhaps I'd best stick to painting them, I just thought they radiated heat. Oh hum!