Radiator Booster
Radiator Booster
Read our Radiator Booster product review
heating | energy efficiency | shopping
The
Radiator Booster pictured above (and seen on BBC2's
Dragon's Den) is a product designed to increase the efficiency of your central heating
radiators. Sitting on top of the radiator, the Radiator Booster uses
energy efficient fans to suck heat from the radiator and drive it into the room to be heated. This reduces the amount of energy wasted heating up the wall at the rear of the radiator, instead sending the hot air directly into the room to be heated.
Reduce Energy Consumption with Radiator Booster
Since the room heats up quicker when
Radiator Booster in operation, the thermostat will turn off the boiler used to feed hot water into the radiators more quickly, and so reduce electricity / gas consumption and save money. For optimal operation, it is recommended to turn down the central heating thermostat by a couple of degrees Celcius (saving 10-20% of current energy costs, or
£50-100 per year in a typical home). Radiator Booster will then distribute the heat from the radiator into the room space more efficiently with the end result that the room is as warm as it was before, but at less environmental and financial cost.
Radiator Booster is particularly useful where
radiator covers are present. Radiator covers prevent the free flow of air around the radiator (convection currents) and into the room to be heated reducing efficiency. Radiator Booster helps to counter this and save a lot of energy.
Powering Radiator Booster
The two
fans in Radiator Booster are rated at
<1 Watt power each and are powered via a
12 VDC mains transformer. Radiator Booster is fitted with a 1.8 metre lead, so you must have a mains power socket within <1.8 metres of your radiator (unless you use an extension lead).
Using a
power meter we measured the power consumption of the
Radiator Booster (via the supplied mains transformer) at
3.6 Watts. Powering the Radiator Booster directly from a
12V battery we measured the total power consumption of the fans to be
1.7 Watts. Therefore, the mains transformer is only
47% efficient wasting 3.6-1.7 = 1.9 Watts, but this is fairly typical for mains transformers supplying small amounts of power.
If the
Radiator Booster is used as recommended for
6 hours per day (and assuming that radiators will be used for 6 months or less per year), the total electricity consumption will only be around
4kWh (units) which at today's prices is under
£0.60 per year.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to leave Radiator Booster on for
24hrs per day since this would cause its fans to overheat and fail. However, a
plug-in timer (not included but available from around £4 in most supermarkets) can be used and programmed to switch on the Radiator Booster at the times of day when the radiators are programmed to be on making this a very simple to set up
automated system.
A
renewable alternative would be to use
5 Watt PV solar panel to charge a suitable
12V battery to provide the necessary power for at least 6 hours of operation per day during the winter.
Buy a Radiator Booster in the UK
Radiator Booster is available in the UK for an RRP of
£20. Click here to
buy Radiator Booster now at a discount (just
£14.99 as of 12th August 2008) on RRP.
Article Last Modified: 15:21, 12th Aug 2008
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