The main mistake that people make is to fit heavy floor-length curtains over both the window and the radiator below. This traps the heat in the window space and does not let it into the room. Correctly fitted curtains should not cover the top of the radiator, but should stop just below the window ledge.
Tip: Hang curtains on extended rod brackets.
Floor-length curtains hung in front of a smaller radiator may be able to close with the help of extended brackets that hold the curtains away from the wall.
Heating Costs
A layer of clothes draped over a radiator will greatly reduce the radiator's efficiency in heating up the room, which is its primary function.
Cover Your Radiator
Covering your radiator is completely safe. "Radiators only get as hot as about 215 degrees," Holohan says, "which isn't nearly hot enough to start a fire." However, be careful not to use certain synthetic fabrics (like fleece or polyester), which might melt.
The simple answer is – YES! Using your radiators or a towel rail to dry clothes will make your boiler work harder than it really needs to, adding to the overall running costs of the system.
Curtains can catch fire from electric radiators if the radiator is close to a curtain made of flammable material. Water radiators usually don't get hot enough to cause curtains to catch fire, but the radiator could still burn any fragile materials nearby.
Floor-length curtains work best with radiators under the windows, but closing them means they'll block the heat generated by the radiator. Generally, pairing up floor-length curtains with other window coverings can do the trick.
If you want your room to benefit from the heat generated by your radiator, one obvious option is to choose curtains that don't extend below your windows. It's a practical choice, as longer curtains would act as a barrier, preventing heat from circulating around the room.
In the past, radiators have often been located under the window in a room because this is the coldest area in the room. Historically, older windows would be single glazed, and this type of window used to let a lot of cold air into the room.
It's not a good idea to place a sofa, or any other large furniture, in front of a radiator. A sofa would block heat from travelling freely around the room, and could suffer potential long-term damage from a close level of heat exposure.
It's safe to put furniture in front of a radiator as long as there is at least a foot in-between them. You should be extra careful with leather, wood, and upholstered pieces of furniture, though, as leather can get ruined and upholstery and wood pieces will absorb most of the heat- perhaps catch on fire, too.
Curtains and any other flammable items should be a minimum of 12 inches away from your baseboard heaters to prevent a fire and to allow for proper airflow that's necessary for the unit to operate.
Keep drapes and curtains at least 8-10" above electric baseboards, and/or at least 3" in front of them with 1" floor clearance (to allow air to circulate). Don't locate curtains or drapes directly over or in front of electric heaters.
In forced hot-water baseboard heaters, hot water in the baseboard unit heats the incoming air. Naturally, hot-water baseboard heaters can become quite hot. For safety's sake, you shouldn't have anything within 12 inches of a unit. As fabric can be a fire hazard, you must keep your curtains away from a baseboard heater.
Yes, while baseboard heaters are considered very safe, and the risk of fire is pretty low if misused, there is a risk of fire. Here are some safety and maintenance tips for preventing fire and to maximize the heating capabilities in a room. Don't Block the Airflow.
Baseboard Heater Side Clearance
Drapes, furniture, and other combustible materials should be at least 6 inches away from each side of a baseboard heater. As noted, most baseboard heaters are designed so that their ends can touch baseboard wall trim, but this applies only to the very ends of the heater unit.
Placing a mirror above your radiator is a great way to make a feature of the wall above it and take the attention away from the radiator itself. It's also a very practical solution if your radiator lies in the centre of a room with lots of space surrounding it.
Avoid “hot spots” – pictures should not be hung above radiators or any other places in the house where temperature will fluctuate from hot to cold. Changes in temperature can cause paper and wood to dry out and adhesives to fail.
Radiator covers mask the fins while allowing the passage of heat. Because most covers have elevated tops, the covers' tops are significantly cooler, and this allows select items to be placed there. Even heat-sensitive items like plants can be placed on a well-insulated radiator cover.
Whereas black surfaces absorb heat energy and light, white surfaces reflect them in contrast. Therefore, to project as much heat as possible out of radiators, moving the heat effectively from the inside to the outside, you would opt to paint them white.
The best place for a radiator is in the coldest part of the room. This used to be under windows. However, in more modern double-glazed homes, there may not be a cold area, so you can put radiators where they won't affect the use of walls. A general rule is to have one radiator for every 4m or so in a room.
Ideally, you don't want a sofa of other furniture blocking a radiator a t all, but if this is not possible then pull the sofa a few inches away from the rad. This will help the warm air to circulate without simply toasting the back of the sofa.
One way to avoid too much heat loss is to have a window sill that projects well over the radiator and curtains that stop on top of the sill. With this arrangement, the heat is directed out into the room instead of behind the curtain and out through the window.
The space required around the radiator so that there is no impedance on heat output due to insufficient natural air movement, is a minimum of 10% of the height of the radiator. In reality, it is aesthetically better to have at least 150mm around the radiator due to the protrusion of the thermostatic valve.
Harris reports that "reductions in the overall energy consumption of the [test] room of up to 6% were recorded by installing [plain] foil behind a radiator, while the heat loss through the area of wall immediately behind the radiator fell to less than 30% of the original value".