Heated skirting boards

[Jazzy Jag]

I have a few pet hates when it comes to the house and DIY

Radiators
Skirting boards
gloss paint

As I am in the throws of some serious (for me) renovations, I am remodeling the hall way and stairs with a new staircase, wooden flooring etc.
in order to do the flooring properly, I will be pulling off all the old skirting, which leaves me with an opportunity.

I have found a company that supplies a heated skirting board which attaches to the existing radiator pipes and therefore does away with the radiator.

http://www.discreteheat.com/

I have previously spoken to several underfloor heating companies and all have ruled it out on the basis of the budget and my unwillingness to pull the entire house apart to re pipe and rewire it.
I don't want electric underfloor heating

Has anyone any first hand experience of heated skirting?

[Jazzy Jag]

037 said:

Can't imagine them giving enough heat out! Is there a spec? How much skirting in your hallway?

http://www.discreteheat.com/thermaskirt/technical-information/performance-data.aspx

hall way is jus over 7meters long

[Jazzy Jag]

blueg33 said:

Thermaskirt is good. We use it in most of our developments. You need a good installer though. They also do an electric version.

In an ideal world, I would love to replace as many rads as possible with it.

is it a good substitute?

[Jazzy Jag]

V8A*ndy said:

I have no idea if this is correct however......,

According to a BTU calc, a 10' x 10' Typical modern living room with an 8' ceiling and a couple of windows requires aprox 4800 BTUS

The site suggests @ 75oC the regency profile will give 189BTU per foot.

So a theoretical 10+10+10+10 (excluding openings) is 40 x 189 = 7560

I could be talking bks though.

You could be..

but I still love the whoosing noise it makes as it goes over my head

[Jazzy Jag]

Well I did it.

We now have heated skirting in the office, hall, cloakroom and one side of the dining room.

The company supplied matching MDF skirting for the area which aren't heated, so it all matches.

When it's on, it gets warm and the room isn't cold so I guess it's working.

Not quite sure what revelation I was expecting but I guess the fact that you can't tell the difference is success .

Assuming we get through the winter with no buyer's remorse, phase 2 is to do the entire lounge and the other side of the dining room.

The only "disappointing " bit is that there are far more covers and bits than I was expecting but they are all necessary given how it works.

[Jazzy Jag]

S6PNJ said:

Jazzy Jag said:

Well I did it.....

Did you use the Thermaskirt in the end or another product? Any chance of some pics of the 'far more covers and bits' please, as this could be a deal breaker. We need to revamp our entire downstairs (and upstairs at some point) so I'd like to consider 'hidden' radiators such as the thermaskirt but I'd like to be well hidden. We need to re-plaster (or should that just be 'plaster' as the original 1930 bricks have never seen plaster!) so can hide pipes etc without too much issue at this stage.

Yes I went with Thermaskirt.
They sent a fitter down from Manchester for 2 days to do the job.
I still have some fake skirting to fot to finnish it all off, though. Still a bit of a WIP.

At the end of each run is an end cover where the top and bottom pipe have to be looped together, so there is a cover over the end.
In one place I have piped through a wall so there is a cover over the point where the pipes re-join to heated skirting

Over view in the office


At the end of the run is a cover over the U pipe


I am going to make a removable access cover in case I ever need to get to the valves
You can see the cover over the point where the pipes connect to the heated skirting


at this point the pipes go through the wall and into the dining room
You can see the end cover


Where the pipes connect to the heated skirting in the dining room.
Originally this wall was not heated so I am adding to the heating capacity of the room.


A wider angle of the dining room wall, and it's not as noticeable in the grand scheme


This will be covered by the fitted office furniture going in next month by Hammonds

Edited by Jazzy Jag on Sunday 22 October 21:05

[Jazzy Jag]

S6PNJ said:

Jazzy Jag said:

lots of stuff with (possible) pics

but sadly the pics are not showing - I can tell you've used Dropbox - but I seem to recollect they changed their sharing method/settings a while ago. Could you give it another shot please?

Odd, I could see the images.

Try it again, I have use Photobicket

[Jazzy Jag]

S6PNJ said:

Now showing thanks! What profile are yours? From the Discreteheat website I'd guess at Deco MB3?

Deco BM2.

It was the lowest profile.

[Jazzy Jag]

nickv said:

BUMP

Jazzy how have you found the system in the last couple of months cold weather.
We are putting an extension on our bungalow, it will be well insulated to current regs, and I am considering using this product.

Cheers

The problem I have had ( I believe) is that the guy who fitted it, opened every radiator valve when he refilled the system and bled it.

Either way the flow and balance has been completely messed up.

My lounge and bedroom 1 and 4 are like a furnace while the bathroom and kitchen are freezing

I have spend weeks going around turning radiators down to try to get it right again,

So the jury is still out, I'm afraid

[Jazzy Jag]

nickv said:

So throughout a home a mix of rads and skirting heat is proving hard to balance ?

Sorry without reading the entire thread again.
What heat sources are in the lounge and bedroom one and four.
And what heat sources are in the cold areas.
( assuming the heated skirtings are in the cold rooms)

I have heated skirting in the Hall, cloakroom, office and dining room, all down stairs with Rads still in the lounge, kitchen and utility.
All 4 beds have rads and towel rails in bathrooms.

The heated skirting definitely gets hot, though.

[Jazzy Jag]

King Herald said:

Jazzy Jag said:

The problem I have had ( I believe) is that the guy who fitted it, opened every radiator valve when he refilled the system and bled it.

Either way the flow and balance has been completely messed up.

My lounge and bedroom 1 and 4 are like a furnace while the bathroom and kitchen are freezing

I have spend weeks going around turning radiators down to try to get it right again,

So the jury is still out, I'm afraid

What about the obvious solution of TRVs in each room?

To be honest with you, I spent most of last year doing house renovations, New stairs, garage doors, 100m2 brick block drive, new bi fold patio door, new floor in hall, office and dining room, complete cloakroom refit new ceilings and lighting.

I stopped for Christmas & new year and have been making a snagging list which included, either replacing some of the other rads with heated skirting and/or TRVs on the rads.

Still to do are replace all the internal doors, new gas fire in the lounge and a complete garden make over.

Struggling with motivation at the moment and the ste weather isn't helping.

I mush have SAD. at least that's my excuse.