Replacing Radiators, Imperial to Metric

These last few winters in the dale have taken their toll on us, in our quest to keep warm we have introduced double glazing, draft proofed the doors and installed a Chimney Sheep.

The last job on the list to improve the warmth was the central heating upgrade. I could put it off no longer It was time to bite the bullet and replace the radiators in the house.  The old ones are well… really old, painted (I hate painted radiators), chipped, flaky and cold.

Technology has moved on somewhat and for the same size radiator today, you can get a lot more heat output - ‘British Thermal Unit’ or BTU - for your buck. So by simply replacing the radiators, like for like, type 11 and type, 21 as appropriate I was hoping to warm the rooms a little better than before. All new radiators have fins or convectors, which my old ones sadly lacked.  These fins or convectors increase the surface area, without increasing the size of the radiator and allow more heat to be radiated away and into the room.

Ever the optimist, I was hoping it would be a simple job of lift off, lift on, but nothing is ever as simple as that, is it.

Measuring up, it became all too apparent that the radiators I have don’t conform to the standard sizes of today.  For example, the width of the bathroom radiator was 520mm, while the standard radiators today come in 100mm increments; 400mm, 500mm or 600mm etc wide.

What made my job a little more difficult is the fact that all of our heating pipes are plastered into the walls so repositioning the pipes was, in my opinion, going to create far too much work.

The likes of B&Q have telescopic radiator valve extenders but the reviews of them left a lot to be desired, with a tendency to leak and at £8.00 each, not something I was prepared to put my faith in.

I eventually found some solid radiator extensions in a place call toolstation, I’d not heard of them but service and quality of items was great.  It’s a bit like Argos for tools, if you pardon the expression.  The solid radiator extensions are considerably cheaper too, starting at £0.68 for the 10mm and going all the way up in 5mm increments to 40mm at £2.60 ish.

Happily, this meant that it was eventually a case of ‘lift off, lift on’ after some alterations to the wall brackets.
 
The picture below shows a 40mm extension in place on the living room radiator. (I've put a 40mm extension on both sides of the radiator).

The picture below shows a 10mm extension in place on the bathroom radiator. (Same again here, I've put a 10mm extension on both sides of the radiator).

Job done.