Replacing old radiators

[ash1212002]

Looking to replace 12 old style single radiators including the bathroom, would it be best to replace them with modern like for like singles or should i fit doubles instead?

 

[Bonni]

Rads are sized to the room per their output. So you need to calculate the btu's required for the room and match the rad to that.

 

[ash1212002]

Rads are sized to the room per their output. So you need to calculate the btu's required for the room and match the rad to that.

I've measured the sizes of the existing radiators so was going to purchase the new radiators based on that as I don't really want to go down the route of adjusting the widths of the pipework

 

[Mottie]

I would have thought that assuming they were sized correctly in the first place, new ones of the same size should be as good, if not better.

 

[ash1212002]

I would have thought that assuming they were sized correctly in the first place, new ones of the same size should be as good, if not better.

Should i stick with singles or install doubles? I'm guessing if i went for doubles the rooms could get a bit too hot, but the trv's could address that?

 

[Gorners]

I replaced 10 old radiators last year. The way I approached it was, if the existing room was sufficiently heated, I replaced with the same size. Modern radiators have slightly better output for the same size vs older rads, so you’ll get slightly increased output anyway.

For rooms which I felt weren’t getting enough heat, I replaced with bigger. One room I got a slightly taller single, and in 2 rooms switched to a double. As you say, any oversizing here is taken care of with the TRV.

I also had researched the capacity of my boiler vs current heat output, and knew I had plenty to spare and wouldn’t overwork the boiler. I would not think/recommend replacing all your rads with doubles is a good idea for this reason.

This has worked great for me - no issues anywhere. Personally I wouldn’t bother looking into btu when you can just work off the existing set-up. Apart from assessing the output of your boiler that is.