A guide to where you should locate radiators in your home.

A key part of your homes central heating system

When you move into a new home, you obviously have radiators that are already located, fixed and fitted. However if you are considering adding new radiators to your home or are wanting to reposition the radiators in rooms of your house then this guide to radiator location may be of use to you.

First things first – do you still need to position a radiator under a window?
If you live in an older sandstone/Victorian home in the West Coast of Scotland then you will most likely have radiators located under windows. This is because on single glazed properties, the best place to locate a radiator was under a window. The heat rising from the radiator would mix together with the cold air coming through the window itself and then, through pressure movement, help move the heat around the room. This helped to keep the room warmer than if the radiator was placed somewhere else in the room.

Of course, this was and still is a very inefficient method of heating a room and thanks to double glazing windows, is now less common unless a home is listed and regulations prevent it from being relocated.

So where should radiators be located?

The best place to locate a radiator is in the coldest part of a room. It is because the conduction of cold air and the heat of the radiator helps to push the hot radiator generated air around the room. On new build properties where the insulation set up of the property is lightyears ahead of where it once was, there may not be specific cold spots in the room.

What about the piping for a radiator?

Moving a radiator from one area of a room to another can be a relatively stress free job. On older homes in the Glasgow/Renfrewshire area, the piping for radiators will generally be around the window area because, as we mentioned above, this is where radiators had to be to heat a home. But if you have since installed double glazing and are wanting to relocated your radiators to a different part of the room, it can be done and the piping can be redirected. A lot comes down to access. How easy is it to get under the floor to access the existing pipes and fit new heater piping.

Where should a new radiator be positioned?

Many home owners still traditionally locate their radiators in the window bay area. And this can be a decision made because of space. The rest of a rooms wall space can be taken up with book shelving, couches, TV stands and so much more. But there is now a huge range of radiator designs and layouts to choose from including vertical radiators and slimline radiators – all of which produce great heat outputs but in smaller designs and styles.