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

--
David

On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:33:30 +0000, gremlin_95
wrote:

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.

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

On 11/12/2011 7:33 a.m., gremlin_95 wrote:
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


Better to put the foil on the walls and ceiling. And the windows. ;-)

On 10/12/2011 20:23, Gib Bogle wrote:
On 11/12/2011 7:33 a.m., gremlin_95 wrote:
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


Better to put the foil on the walls and ceiling. And the windows. ;-)
Doubt Mum would appreciate that :P

--
David

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
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


--
fred
it's a ba-na-na . . . .

On 11/12/2011 13:57, fred wrote:
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.

Hi,

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


--
David

On Dec 10, 6:33*pm, gremlin_95 wrote:
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

Radiators put out convected heat, not radiated. Foil reflects radiated
but conducts convected heat.


NT