Painted Radiators

Silly_Dilly

We recently moved into a two hundred year year old, 2,300 sq. ft. home that was extremely inefficient when we made the purchase. We have had all of the widows replaced with energy star windows, insulated the basement, and had a home efficiency company come in and help us plug up as many leaks as possible. We have a radiant heating system that uses oil delivered because we live in Maine where city oil or gas does not exist. We still feel like we are paying way too much, almost another mortgage per month in fact, and we are trying to figure out how to further improve our efficiency to help cut down on some of these costs.

We have radiators that have been painted with what seems to be many layer of what looks like a standard interior white paint to match the walls. The temperature of these when I take an infrared thermometer to them is around 115 degrees Fahrenheit when they are fully producing heat. I have read that the temperature should be up around 200 degrees. I was wondering if this is correct and if so is it the paint layers that are causing this drop in temperature? Also I have heard that putting a metal sheet behind each radiator will help push more heat out into the room, allowing us to keep the thermostat temperature down. Is there any merit to this? I have also read that painting these radiators a dark color such as black will allow them to radiate more heat. True or false? If so, do I need to have them stripped first? So many questions I know, but any help would be truly appreciated. Have a warm rest of the winter!