Hydronic heating panel location?

I seem to have developed a difference in logic from most of the "experts" I have spoken to about hydronic radiator panel locations and I'm hoping that someone can set me straight!

We have picked ourselves up off the floor after the quotes came in for hydronic heating for our house in Melbourne and resigned ourselves to paying >$11,000 for the system (fully installed).

Both the architect and the suppliers that I have spoken to have recommended placing the panels underneath the windows - particularly in bedrooms. From a convenience perspective I get it because it is rare that you want to put furniture in front of the window, however from and energy efficiency perspective it seems flawed! Given that I am filling the external wall cavity with R2.5 batts (my eski theory for house insulation) why would you place the heater such that the convective heat passes in front of the part of the room that has the least insulation (R0.5 at best)? Add to that, we will probably add full length curtains that, when closed will quite nicely trap the heat between the window and the curtain!

Am I mad or should I rather locate the panels ideally against an internal wall away from the window so that the convective heat distrbutes through the room and the radiated heat does not get lost through an external wall?

Stuart

Stuart

I spent several years installing ducted heating systems and we always tried to install the registers under the windows or in front of the fixed panel of sliding doors.

Now this wasn't for any of the reasons that you have stated but because cold air comes off windows and glass doors and with the register or the heating element or in your case the hydronic panels and the heat mixes with the cold air and as heat rises it takes the cold air with it so as you don't have cold drafts coming of the windows and doors and i agree with both your architech and heating supplier.

What I don't understand is why they haven't explained this to you.

I had had people sitting in a room with all the windows and doors closed and complained about having draughts making the cold around the legs.

In fact the best senario in a cold climate with windows is to have curtains with a pelmet at the top and have the curtains touching the floor and this will cut off the drafts.

Stuart,

I've just taken delivery of a wood fired hydronics system for my new house. (Cost me $10,000 for the boiler, flues, radiators etc but not including installation and copper pipes - that's another $3-4,000.)

The manufacturer provided plans for the placement of the radiators. None of them are below windows. As it happens, all the windows are almost full wall height so it would not have been possible to put radiators below them, but I don't think the supplier knew that when he decided placement.

I don't know who is correct but if you ask me this time next year I will have a more considered view.

Bill

Just on another comment:

Placement of panels will also depend on access for the pipes.

Take this from someone who's lived in Europe for 30 years with hydronic heating: the panels go on the external wall, ideally under a window.
I am having hydronic put into our new house, the panels have just been installed.

A word of caution: if you think you wouldn't be happy with 21 degrees max in your living area when it's really really cold outside (depends on the city, for Melbourne that's 4.5 degrees), make sure you mention this to your installer, as panel size calculations are done this way.