The Radiator Booster
Mk 3 is the
latest generation of this ingenious concept. It is a clever idea
that increases the
efficiency of your central heating by using a small fan to suck the
warm air from behind your radiator and blow it into the room. As the
room heats up more quickly than by natural convection, your boiler can
switch off earlier, saving you energy and money. Yet the Radiator
Booster should cost as little as 30 pence per year to run.
Heats your room faster and saves you money
The ingenious Radiator Booster works in 2 ways:
1) Your central heating boiler can use up to 15 kilowatts of energy
every hour. The clever fan arrangement within the Radiator Booster
draws heat from
your radiator, heating your room in up to half the time, allowing your
boiler to shut down
much sooner. If you could save just one hour a week of your boiler
working, you would save 15
kilowatts of energy. With just this saving, the radiator Booster would
pay for itself in just 10 weeks. But you could easily find the savings
more than this, between 7 and 14 hours/week (over 100
kilowatts) during the colder months.
2) As your radiator heats up, the back surface normally radiates heat
onto your wall, heating this up, which in turn is lost through the wall
structure due to conduction.
The Radiator Booster sucks most of this wasted heat and fires it into
your room, significantly
reducing the losses, saving you even more energy. It really is as
simple as that!
How much energy does it really save?
This will depend on how you use the Radiator Booster, and for how long.
But UK energy providers state that reducing your thermostat setting by
one degree Celsius could
save the average home £70/year or 10% of your heating bills. Most tests
carried out with
Radiator Booster™ have achieved between a 1 and 3 degrees reduction,
giving a saving of around £140 per annum (based upon Energy Saving
Trust 2009 data).
Can it be used with Radiator Covers?
YES. Definitely. Provided you can fit the device in place under
your cover, you will save up to 3 times as much energy. Covers prevent
a radiator from ‘radiating’ its
heat, and instead rely solely on ‘convection’. Radiator Booster
enhances that convection at least three
fold, distributing huge amounts of trapped heat.
Can I leave it running 24/7?
YES. The new Radiator Booster Mk 2 has a built in thermostat that
switches on at around 30 degrees Celsius and switches off when the
radiator temperature drops below this point. You could turn it off when
the radiator cools down
but it is not necessary as the thermostat control will automatically
control the use of the integral fan. If you prefer you could
plug the power supply into a standard ‘event timer’ unit to
avoid remembering to turn it
on/off..
My radiator is very long. Do I need to
use two of these?
You can do, but it is not necessary. The simple movement of air
created by Radiator Booster will normally lead to good convection in
your room.
Where should I place it on my radiator?
For
best performance, place it as far to the back as possible and
centralised along the length of your radiator. However, if you place it
to one end, it should still work adequately.
On some radiator designs you will find that the device will drop down
slightly behind the top of the
radiator. This further enhances the performance.
Can I use it on oil filled radiators,
electric storage radiators, or
electric convection radiators?
NO. These types of radiator reach far higher surface temperatures than
water filled radiators. These higher temperatures will distort and
damage the housing and fans of
Radiator Booster.
Can I use it in my bathroom, shower
room, sauna room, outbuilding, etc?
NO! Radiator Booster must not be used in a damp or humid environment
under any circumstances.
How much electricity does it use, and
is it safety approved?
The Radiator Booster has been tested and approved by an independent
laboratory, and conforms to all aspects of CE Certification. Each fan
is rated at 1.25
watt, 12v DC, and each unit is supplied complete with a full set of
instructions. Should you operate a Radiator Booster for 500 hours, it
will use approximately 0.625kW of electricity (costing less than 13p
for most
homes).
Will I need to put one of these in
every room?
We would recommend you place one in each room that you regularly use,
but it shouldn’t be necessary for other rooms. After all, you could
unplug and move one
very easily if necessary.
Do I need to clean the device?
Yes. As with any fan, dust will build up on various surfaces, which
will impair the performance and reliability of the device. You
will need to clean it
periodically using a lint free cloth. Take care with the fan blades as
they are very delicate and can
break easily.
Can you hear it working?
YES. The small fans used in Radiator Booster, like any fans, make an
audible humming noise."The fans used in Radiator Booster are similar to
those used in home
computers and operate at around the same audible level." During the
summer many of us use large noisy
desktop/ pedestal fans to help keep us cool, and in the winter noisy
electric fan heaters to help keep
us warm. Radiator Booster costs virtually nothing to run and is
considerably quieter than either
of these. There Radiator Booster also has an LED to tell you what it is
doing - signalling red to confirm that the mains power is on, green to
show the fan is active and flashing green to show that the radiator is
cooling down.
Sometimes it is quieter than other
times. Why is this?
The fans can take some time to settle down and perform at their
optimum, and they are also very sensitive to temperature. The sounds
will vary from time to time, but
this is normal and should cause no concern.
For
more details see the instruction page here.
