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Tank in front of radiator

Epiphyte

Member
Joined
15 Dec 2020
Messages
187
Location
Hemel Hempstead
Okay I know this is, in theory, a poor idea, but has anyone actually done and have experience to back up any ill effects of doing so?

Most usable walls in my house have a rad on and there is one place I'd like to have my tank which currently has a rad on. Going in to summer they won't be used all that much (hah!), but I don't fancy moving a 250kg piece of furniture full of animals and plants come the winter.

Sadly it doesn't have a TRV and seems to be the "master" rad downstairs (sorry, I'm no plumber) so I've got to keep it on.

150 litres though, so fairly high thermal mass. Bottom of tank sits approximately level with the top of the radiator.
 
Depending on how your radiators are linked you might still be able to turn the radiator off. Even without a trv it will have some form of valve, might just need a pair of pliers to do it.
If your unlucky and the radiators are series linked then ignore this advice.
 
The valve nearest the thermostat as you say doesn’t have a TRV. It should though have a normal valve for balancing the system so you should be able to turn it down. The adjuster is normally under a small plastic cap.
 
I think the point is it can't be turned off since it's the master next to the thermostatic control. The entire system would become unbalanced and work inefficiently.
But you could use one of these to insulate against an increase in tank temp...

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Assuming the thermostat is set sensibly, the heating is only going to be on when the room ambient temperature is below the desired tank temperature. Plus, glass is a relatively poor conductor of heat so most of the heat ought to be floating up to the ceiling as hot air and circulating the room rather than being absorbed by the tank water. Might increase evaporation in an open top tank though.

I am in the process of installing a tank perpendicular to the end of a radiator, (so not exactly the same as OP), and have been giving these issues some thought recently... not encountered any deal breakers yet.
 
Brilliant idea with the cat, an open top tank means I won't even need to feed it either 🤣

I have had a tank in front of the radiator before but I turned its shut off valve off. Over the late autumn to winter it was almost impossible to heat my house (an old Victorian school house, not the best insulated building) so when I replaced the tank I put it in a location that I really just don't like. With the valve open my house sits at a fairly pleasant temperature and doesn't take forever to heat. Thermostat is set to 21° and off over night which usually sees it drop to around 17° at the lowest. Within a few weeks I would hope to have the heating off for a few months but it inevitably will have to be turned on.

If I had a black background on the tank I'd probably just stick some sort of insulating material on the back of the tank but it's got a frosted back wall which I like.

I may just give it a shot, but it'll be a right pain in the blahblahblahblah if I have to move it again
 
I had my ea 600 right next to a radiator without any I’ll effects, in fact I had to add a heater to the tank as it was too cool at 20c.

7F85807E-4788-4FA8-B858-F3AB739FC222.jpeg
 
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