[I'm posting this to the group as it was emailed to me from someone who
presumably found my article on rad outputs on the wiki.]

I have been searching for these specs since I had my old ones replaced by
modern convectors in Feb this year with DISASTEROUS RESULTS.

Those old steel panel rads with no fins had amazing radiaant heat transfer
properties, and I did not know that they just needed FLUSHING THROUGH, or
what benefits they had over the modern convectors, until I changed them,
to my great regret, too late.

I did find a website which gave the heat output for the old obsolete rads,
and found that my 58cm high and about 47inch something wide old ones had a
wattage of about 1000.

Similar modern ones today, are 752W with no fins. Researched that" the
powers that be "have thinned the steel down over the years and my new ones
are the now new regs of 1.20mm of cold rolled steel plate, which do get
hot but do not radiate or give off the intense heat that my old ones did.

Also the INERTIA has been reduced to make the rads lose their heat
quicker, and so do I!

My old ones kept hot for a very long time and reduced their heat very
slowly, enabling me to turn off boiler at a low air temp. of 20.5, and I
remained warm for 90 minutes, 20 mins after the rads were cold. Very
energy saving.

With my new convectors, I and all my FEMALE friends and relatives, do not
feel even warm enough at 24 degrees, and as rads lose their heat quicker,
I keep shivering, which I never did at a much lower air temp, with my old
little miracles I lost. And the new energy saving boiler had to be on
constantly, drying out the air, but still not getting me warm at even 26
degree AIR TEMP Humidity in room went down to 29% and I had a dry mouth
breathing in the uncomfortable too dry air.

My old ones gave me a healthy humidity of 48% at 21 degrees, and cosy
warmth.

You are a man, and do not feel the cold as much as we females, or react to
sudden loss of heat as we do - the men I know say they always hot.

Also, I was surprised that, with my old ones, the night min. temp in my
front room, which is all glass and open plan to a glass front door and 9
squ m unheated kitchen, with just 1" of glass wool in the ceiling of my
bungalow, lost only 2 degrees ( from 20.5 - 18.6), during -4 degrees of
frost in the night, with no heating on.

But my convectors cannot do this, and with +6 min in the night, my front
room min temp went down by 10 degrees!!!!!!

My rearch on the web, explained to me that the old rads gave off a
powerful direct to the body heat, which also warmed the walls and solid
objects, which convectors are not good at doing, and the walls gave back
their heat in the night when the ambient air temp reduced.

My scientific brother, who worked on aero combustion, said radiators all
work by convection, NEVER by radiation, as that is only possible with
electric, open fire flame or sources from the sun!!!!!!!!!!!! And is
insisting that the old rads could not be any different from the new ones.

I know they have made the steel thinner and indeed they sound more like
TIN when tapped. The old ones CLONKED. so I have been trying to find the
specs on the old ones to prove to my brother than I am not insane!!! And
the water content has been lowered, so heat output is lowered.

I found a website, which explained everything that happened when I changed
my old non-finned rads for convectors, and that is Energy Saving Now, with
particular reference to " The mess with radiators"

Also the shivering was explained in one of the other sections, about heat
from the fins of convectors losing heat quicker than the waterfilled
panals, and the body reacting by "feeling a sudden freezing" and reaching
for room thermostat to bring on the heating again so soon. using more gas
than is necessary with the non-finned rads. Which is exactly what I did.

He especially refers to the benefits of the old obsolete rads for older
not so well insulated houses, and the inappropriateness of convectors in
such houses.

He went as far to say that "science had got it wrong to make them
obsolete, by deeming them inefficient".

I have learned this all too late. After the flushing through of the old
ones, they gave out such a powerful direct to body heat that even the
plumber thought the rooms were 10 degrees higher than my thermometers
said, and in his ignorance, he claimed my thermometers were all wrong,
which they were not.

So, my message for you is that the old obsolete rads are BETTER than the
new convectors whether for old or new houses. And to keep them as long as
they last.

In fact, I have been searching to find these old rads to swop with my new
ones, but in vain

I would be very interested in any pecs you have of the 60s and 70s rads,
to prove to my brother how they HAVE changed.

He has 1984 rads, most without fins, including a double with no fins, but
has no way of knowing their technical heat outputs, but assumed what they
were, from comparing them with today's - grave error, as the sizes have
reduced their output.

I read on one website that in 1997, new regs forced rads to reduce their
output by 11% and asked WHY? But there was no answer.

Do not know if you will receive this e-mail as I wanted to reply on the
website, but too complicated for me to LOG IN, I,m afraid.


[Reminder: the above is what was emailed to me, not my own words]
--
John Stumbles

Life is nature's way of keeping meat fresh