Best spot for a steam radiator in a small room

branimal · May 2019

I'm renovating a building and I need to choose a spot for a radiator in small room. The most important thing is the radiator doesn't affect furniture place / usability of the room.

It has to go along the wall with the windows.

Options are:
1. under the window b/c people typically don't put furniture in front of the window.
2. In the weird angled corner
3. In the 90 degree corner.

Any thoughts?

Jamie Hall · May 2019

Mercy. That's not a room, that's a closet. From the standpoint of heating the room, it really won't matter -- radiators circulate warm air (naturally) pretty well. From the standpoint of using the room, though... although option 1 is conventional, I think it's problematic, as that is where someone will have to walk to get into the corner. On the whole, I think I'd go for option 2, and put some sort of clever set of shelves over it, starting about a foot above it....

Danny Scully · May 2019

That room isn’t even 100 sqft, are you sure it legal?

branimal · May 2019

yeah its legal. 7 feet in a building with 3 or more bedrooms is legal. The other bedrooms are standard size.

KC_Jones · May 2019

The only place left for someone to put a typical dresser is in front of the window so option 2 is really the only option, by the numbers.

Danny Scully · May 2019

What’s the heat loss of the room? Could you go with option 2 and use a riser right in that corner as your source of radiation?

mikeg2015 · May 2019

Steam or hot water? If steam a small wall mount single section might work well. If hot water, they make some really small panel radiators. I agree, option 2 would be best. Maybe a shorter shingle tube or column radiator like those used for bathrooms.

branimal · May 2019

Thanks guys.

Danny - good idea on the riser. The pipe coming up is 1". I'll google heat loss calc and get back.

Mike - it's single pipe steam system.

pecmsg · May 2019

How do you plan on controlling the heat in that closet?
Only 2 outside walls, well insulated there wont be much heat loss, any calculations on the total BTU's required?

KC_Jones · May 2019

You need to do the heat loss on all the rooms. I’ve read some of your other posts and this is like a new system with all the work being done. Room by room heat loss, size the radiation accordingly.