Combine heat loss estimate and IR inspection

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Last Post by IanMK13 5 months ago

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Lakey

(@lakey)

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Joined: 5 months ago

Posts: 22

Topic starter 16/02/2025 1:21 pm

I have had a couple of heat loss surveys done which vastly vary on my heat loss in one particular room of my house, and therefore on the additional rads required to heat the room... However, I'm extremely limited on wall space in the room. It currently has two vertical designer rads, which are very expensive to upgrade if I can't find wall space for a horizontal... This expense puts a heat pump ever so slightly out of my price range, but the boiler is on its last legs!

So, I was wondering if I could combine something like heat punk or magicplan (a LIDAR app and engineer told me they were using) with images or information from a thermal camera (I have borrowed a FLIR edge one).

The two vertical rads are 1800*440, I don't know the exact manufacturer but I can find plenty of flat 6 panel double rads with approx dimensions and they're all about 1500 W at dt50.

My 2005 condensing combi boiler runs at approx 55 degrees C and the room stat is set to 18.4. I can just get the room to 19.5 if empty and I leave the thermostat on max. If there's two or three of us in the room we can get to 20.2.

Boiler temp is measured with the IR camera and an IR thermometer on the rads and pipework.

The room is approx 43m2, 22 of that is new 2018 extension with a sloped roof. I have drawings for that so I know the floor and roof have 100 mm insulation. known U values of 0.22 floor, 0.21 for the external wall, 0.15 for the sloped roof.

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks in advance

This topic was modified 5 months ago by Lakey

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IanMK13

(@ianmk13)

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Posts: 194

17/02/2025 8:48 pm

I'm in a similar situation with a couple of large vertical designer rads (1560W @ ΔT50) in a recently refurbished kitchen/diner. For a 40°C flow temperature - i.e. around ΔT20 - the radiator output will be around a quarter of that at ΔT50. I've turned my (oversized) boiler down as low as it will go and been heating my home like this for over a year. All rooms have remained at over 20°C, even during the recent cold weather.

In reality, I suspect that there isn't a problem. My kitchen diner has SE-facing windows and bifold doors so there will be some solar gain. There will also be heat transfer from adjacent rooms and the central heating pipes above the ceiling for the rooms above. The room gains heat from the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, oven, microwave, fridge, freezer, wine fridge and hot-tap. I note from my gas meter readings over several years that for 360 days of the year my energy requirement for heating is, at most, 80% of the peak in the remaining five days. I'm prepared to wear another layer for 5 days a year if necessary. At a push, I do have space for an additional fan coil unit, but I will be discussing the above with my system designer to see what he thinks.

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