Cast Iron Radiator

Cast iron radiators are being used right from 1860s. They have been very popular ever since then and are quite famous even to this day, their biggest virtue being the gentle, radiant and even heating that they provide.

The radiators comfortably and durably heat the rooms. This is an age old way to bring the necessary warmth in the homes and they heat up and cool down slowly. There are so many new ways to heat, but cast iron radiators have carved a niche for themselves and they still have quite a strong following. Knowledge about anything which is imperative to the comfort of your house is an asset. So if you have this as the mode of heating your home then its best that you have some knowledge about its basics, this will also allow you to make its best possible use.

As an owner or ‘would be’ owner of a cast iron radiator your knowledge of some fundamentals will help you manage them safely. The material used for manufacturing these i.e. cast iron is the top choice as it’s a good balance of high specific heat capacity and affordability. Other metals are either too expensive to be used or do not have a high capacity like cast iron. It holds heat energy well, warming the air around it. There are basically two types if heating systems used in these radiators – hot water or steam. The hot water ones circulate hot water through the radiators; this is in turn heated by boilers. In the second type steam is used, it’s at very low pressure i.e. about 1 pound/sq. inch. Steam easily rises from the boiler up to the radiators and once they are full of the low pressure steam they can gently and effectively heat up the room. The measuring unit of the radiators radiating surface area is “Equivalent Direct Radiation” or “EDR”. When the radiators came into existence houses didn’t have such good insulation as the present times, yet they did a pretty good job at heating. The radiators today are far more effective than the building’s actual heat loss, even on the coldest days.

A traditional cast iron radiator can be described in terms of its height, the number of sections it has and the number of columns or tubes it carries. Initially people were not really happy with such heavy duty iron columns and tubes inside the house, however with the passage of time they made a place for themselves in the houses and fitted in aesthetically too. More and more ornate and decorated ones soon evolved and the ones with the Victorian or Italianate styles were in fact very artistic with raised carvings and designs. These days they are in vogue and will blend perfectly with the setting if your house’s décor is classic and chic. They are mostly priced by the fin and can vary between $10 to$ 20 depending on the height, depth and decoration.

Since the radiators get very hot and are open to touch some amount of caution id advised. Though a brief touch with the cast iron radiator will not do any harm, but if you tend to linger a little bit longer it can lead to burn. Houses which have pets also need to be extra careful.