Central heating rads

[NewhouseOldhouse]

Hi

My rads are old style single panel ones and have one connection at one end of the rad where I assume the water flows in and out.

If I wanted to change the rads to connection ones would I have to convert them to a connection at either end of the new rad or can I keep the single connection at one end?

Thanks

 

[oldbuffer]

1. Assuming the valves each have two pipes, then there will be a long tube for the flow of water from one pipe going along the inside of the base of the radiator. They are called twin entry valves.
2. You can still get them I think, but they are quite expensive. I don't think they come with the tube for inside the radiator, so you might need special radiators as well.
3. They were often used on microbore systems (10 mm pipe +- a couple of mm).
4. I assume you want to change to convection, rather than connection. This means single or double radiators with one or more sets of "fins" to increase the area able to give up heat. Don't forget these are generally thicker than plains single panel radiators, so the pipe connection may well be further from the wall than at present, requiring some, probably minor, pipework alterations. There may be alterations required also because of change of length if you can't get the same width as at present.
5. Given the need for alteration, you may well find it more economic to run two pipes and use standard valves and radiators.
In summary, you can keep the single ended connection, but may find it a good bit more expensive than going to a more standard approach.