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Radiator Booster redirects hot air from the wall to the room

The Radiator Booster is a temperature-activated fan, that draws warm air out from behind a radiator and into the room
The Radiator Booster is a temperature-activated fan, that draws warm air out from behind a radiator and into the room

The basic idea with radiators is that they should, well, radiate heat out into the room. Given that they're almost always located against walls, however, much of the heat coming off the back of them is just absorbed by those walls. What someone should make is a gizmo that draws the heated air out from behind a radiator, and blows it over to where it will be appreciated. Well, that's what the Radiator Booster is.

Essentially a temperature-activated fan, the Radiator Booster has been around for a few years now. Just recently, however, the new-and-improved MK3 model was introduced.

The Polypropylene device sits on top of your radiator, hooked up to mains power - it reportedly costs less than 50 cents a year to run. A red LED on the unit indicates that it is on, and waiting for the radiator to exceed a temperature of at least 30ºC (86ºF). Once that happens, the Booster's fan will kick in, and the light will turn green. After the radiator has dropped back below that "threshold temperature," the fan will once again stop, and the LED will turn to a flashing green.

Because the Radiator Booster puts a larger amount of heat out into the room where people can feel it, users should be able to set their thermostats lower, yet maintain the same level of comfort that they did before getting the device. According to a 2009 study conducted by the UK's Energy Saving Trust, Booster users were able to turn down their thermostats by an average of 1 to 3 degrees Celsius, resulting in energy cost savings of about GBP140 (US$220) per year.

A list of retailers in various countries can be found on the Radiator Booster website. The MK3 recently became available on Firebox, where it's selling for GBP24.99 (US$39).

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6 comments
Snake Oil Baron
Great idea if it\'s not too loud. Wouldn\'t this also be complemented by putting a layer of heat reflecting foil--the stuff that they put in winter survival kits--behind the radiator? The point is the same; stop heating the wood and drywall of the wall.
Mr Stiffy
Put a small desk fan on the floor, turn it on low, aim it at the skirting board below the heater - the air gets forced underneath, and up behind the heater, and it also breaks up the stratification - of the hot air sitting at the ceiling and the cold air sitting on the floor.
Andy Barrow
Seems like you would want to put a curved deflector out the bottom of the radiator, then have a fan device push the air *down* (I realize that\'s opposite what it would naturally do) across the back so that the warm air is pushed across the floor, rising naturally. Warm toes!
Just pushing the air out the top would seem to encourage it to go to the ceiling.
ccb
Radiators are put against walls and below windows for a reason. Comfort conditions are generally based on operative temperatures which depends on both mean air temperature and mean radiant temperature. By having a film of warm air flowing up against the wall heats the wall and produces a blanket of warm air that increases mean radiant room temperature as well as room air temperature. If the radiator is well designed and the thermostat and ventilation correctly set there should be no significant stratification or stagnant warm air at roof level.
So I don\'t really see this product having any real energy saving benefits at all. One more than likely would get better effects from making sure the heating system is operating well. The only benefit I see is rapidly increases in the initial heat up of a room but that doesn\'t provide any energy savings, actually quite the contrary.
Itzi
Energy saving: It is true that it would help saving energy. If the heat supply to the ambient air is better, the same amount of energy can be emitted with lower flow temperature (water). This brings down the exhaut gas temperature end you have an higher efficiency...
Attention: If a heat cost allocator is mounted on the radiator it will falsify the displayed value...
armahn
Complete waste of money. Marginal effect.
Also very cheap build quality for the price. Bit of a rip off really.