Can I recess a radiator into a wall?

[spencerhornet]

I am looking at recessing a radiator into a plaster wall. The wall is exterior but will be battened out with new plaster board around the radiator to give the effect that it is actually recessed into the wall. I am thinking something along the lines of the picture below:



I am thinking of doing this mainly for aesthetic reasons. The radiator would be a single Flat Panel Vertical Radiator. My questions are:

1. Are there major issues with recessing the radiator into a wall from a heat efficiency point of view?
2. Would I be able to use a standard single Flat Panel Vertical Radiator?
3. Would I need to put some insulation into the wall behind the radiator?
4. I cant see that many people do this so I assume there are good reasons not to - is this the case? ie is this just a stupid idea!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

1. Yes you would only get radiant heat with bad convection heat (you need a lot of space around for convection to work)

2. You could but no 1 still applies but they also don't give out much heat anyway and you need a massive one to heat a normal room

3. The whole stud wall would need insulation anyway

4. By now you will understand why most don't

 

[Pea Bee]

Radiators emit heat via conduction (heats up the air touching the front and rear surfaces).
However, convection transfers this heat around the room. Air warmed by the front and rear surfaces of the radiator rises, flowing through the room, while cooler air gets drawn past the surfaces of the radiator to get heated up. This flow of air warming up, warm air rises and traveling through the room, as the air cools it falls and eventualy gets drawn past the radiator to heat up again.... and continues the flow.

Most radiators have fins on the back to maximise the surface area to heat the greatest volume of air.... so much more air will be drawn up the back of the radiator than up the front.

Your design will greatly reduce the efficiency of the radiator, as air flow up the back will be close to zero, and even airflow up the front will be reduced.

At a guess, you may only get 25% - 33% of the heat output compared to hanging the radiaror as normal.

 

[Harvest Fields]

Radiators emit heat via conduction (heats up the air touching the front and rear surfaces).
However, convection transfers this heat around the room. Air warmed by the front and rear surfaces of the radiator rises, flowing through the room, while cooler air gets drawn past the surfaces of the radiator to get heated up. This flow of air warming up, warm air rises and traveling through the room, as the air cools it falls and eventualy gets drawn past the radiator to heat up again.. and continues the flow.

Most radiators have fins on the back to maximise the surface area to heat the greatest volume of air.. so much more air will be drawn up the back of the radiator than up the front.

Your design will greatly reduce the efficiency of the radiator, as air flow up the back will be close to zero, and even airflow up the front will be reduced.

At a guess, you may only get 25% - 33% of the heat output compared to hanging the radiaror as normal.

Did you know that 67% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

 

[rpm]

Did you know that 67% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

Did you know that 5/4 of people don`t understand fractions?

 

[Harvest Fields]

Did you know that 5/4 of people don`t understand fractions?

Tip of the day- Don't eat yellow snow.

 

[JCplumb]

Did you know there are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

 

[Harvest Fields]

Did you know there are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

That's actually quite funny.

 

[Chalked]

It's DNA day today. The national association of dyslexia.
Come to think of it , why is dyslexia so hard to spell?

Back to the op.
Other things to consider are. Your thermostatic valves. These will need remote sensing heads, as it will be sensing the hot air inside the recess.
If you really want to do it, go ahead. But mechanically, it makes the rad work very poor. Plus, to me. It makes it stand out more.

 

[Chuck]

Plus, to me. It makes it stand out more.

Agreed, not least because it would need to be significantly larger than a conventionally installed radiator. My guess is 50% larger than a single-panel but one would need spend quite a while figuring out exactly what the correct size is.

Anyway, I would suggest trying to find a nice-looking 'designer' radiator instead. If you can't hide it, make it a feature.

Is the picture a real installation or a photoshop? If it's real I wonder why they used what appears to be a double-panel radiator. Perhaps it was original and the wall was built up (internal insulation) around it.

 

[king of pipes]

Fit a fan convector myson do a range or smiths some are remote controlled cheers kop

 

[zzzjim]

Forced convection , I'm a fan of that !
( need to pay for quality - unless you are hard of hearing )

Fashon / Art can help sell oversized products .