As warmth pumps grow to be an increasing number of standard, Nick Duggan, MD at The Radiator Centre solutions our questions on which radiators are finest to make use of with these methods and the way to maximise power effectivity.
Why may I want completely different radiators for a warmth pump?
Warmth pumps work at decrease temperatures than typical boilers and as a consequence, they’ll warmth a room to a decrease temperature as nicely. Conventional radiators are designed for higher-temperature methods and subsequently could not work as successfully with a warmth pump, resulting in decreased heating effectivity. To compensate for this, it’s probably that you’ll both want bigger radiators than you at present have or extra power environment friendly ones. Radiators designed for warmth pumps are optimised to function effectively with the decrease temperature output of the warmth pump.
What are essentially the most environment friendly radiators to make use of with a warmth pump?
Radiators with extra floor space are finest as they’ll switch warmth extra successfully into the encompassing area, though this doesn’t all the time should imply bigger radiators. Vitality environment friendly radiators are designed to maximise the quantity warmth generated and infrequently consists of options like fins, convectors, or different parts that enhance the floor space out there for warmth trade in additional intelligent, discreet methods.
These energy-efficient radiators additionally embody an optimised warmth exchanger, which makes use of 90% much less water than is utilized in commonplace radiators, which means much less power is required to warmth the water up. This additionally brings different benefits in that the radiators take much less time to warmth up and also you decrease your carbon footprint on the identical time. For arduous to warmth areas many energy-efficient designs additionally include a fan-assisted ‘enhance’ that may generate as much as 3 times the quantity of warmth {that a} typical radiator would generate.
Do I want greater radiators for a warmth pump?
Not essentially. If sticking with typical metal panels then sadly these will must be both longer or deeper, however there are alternate options on the market such because the energy-efficient choices, which use the decrease circulate temperatures of a warmth pump higher so there may be much less have to lose wall area for the sake of going greener. The energy-efficient choices are usually created from supplies with excessive thermal conductivity, equivalent to aluminium. 
May I take advantage of my present radiators?
It will rely upon a variety of elements together with the scale of your own home and the way insulated it’s. It’s in all probability finest to verify with an authorised installer, however it’s fairly probably you will want to improve your radiators to compensate for the decrease circulate temperatures that warmth pumps function at.
Nick Duggan, Director, The Radiator Centre, 01727 840344
