Energy-Efficient Radiator Cover

Originally, I wanted to build a radiator cover that would protect my daughters from our cast-iron, steam radiators. Steam radiators get much hotter than hot water radiators, and I was concerned that they would get burned. As I researched different designs, I found a lot of discussion about whether you are increasing or decreasing the energy efficiency of your radiators by covering them.

Both sides made valid arguments, but I needed to cover my radiators to protect my children. I decided to incorporate all of the best ideas I had found and a few of my own into one design.

Efficiency

Some people say you are preventing a radiator from transmitting heat to the air and surrounding area when you cover it. Other people say that because the hot air coming off the radiator goes straight up, a bare radiator is an ineffective way to heat your house.

Radiators do circulate some hot air around the room, but the majority of the heat is transmitted via radiation. Because most radiators are on the outside walls of a house, a lot of the energy is wasted warming an exterior wall. Many sites suggest insulating the backside of the radiator with a foil insulation to reflect the radiant heat back into the room. This is a smart thing to do even if you are not going to cover your radiators. If you plan to use your radiator cover as a shelf, some people suggest lining the underside of the cover's top with this insulation to keep it cool.

Radiator cover efficiency
Improved Air-Flow
Benefits of covers


Insulation

There are many different types of foil insulation, but ideally you just want something with a foil coating and a thin insulation backing. I actually got my insulation at Lowes, but I really like the selection at insulation4less.com

Excellent selection of insulation types
Foil bubble Insulation

Typically, radiator covers have a metal mesh on the front to allow heat to pass through. I really liked the metal grills that I found at Barker Metalcraft , but I figured covering hot metal with other hot metal was not making it any safer for little fingers. I decided to make an all wood cover based on the styles I liked best.

I liked the Mission style best because it still looks like a radiator and it allows air and radiant heat to flow freely out of the slats. I also liked the idea of a vent at the very top of the hollow so that no heat would get trapped inside the case. I wanted to have a design that encouraged convection currents and possibly directed them out into the room where the heat was needed.

I used these sites for ideas:
Wolf Radiator enclosures
beautifulradiators.com
myhomeus.com

I made my cover mostly out of what is labeled "white wood" at the home stores. According to a few sites I have seen, it could be many different types of wood, but they lump it all under the name "white wood" so that they can sell anything that is available as one product. I think it is usually Spruce, which is what this looks like to me. I found a lot of pieces with tiny little knot holes and many knots that are about the size of a Lego block peg. Take your time and select the straightest pieces you can find. If you settle for imperfect wood, you will be sorry later and your project will suffer.

Update: I found a great article on About.com with information about what they call SPF (Spruce, White Pine, or Douglas Fir) wood that is found at the home centers.

I used this white wood because it was the cheapest wood available. I didn't care about the knots because I planned to paint it white to match the woodwork in the room. All of the wood used totaled around $40, but the foil bubble insulation cost another $20.

The only wood that was not white wood was the top and the plywood back. I bought a higher quality, 4' x 1' solid pine panel for the top because I didn't want it to warp or crack. I bought a 4' x 2' sheet of 1/4" plywood for the back.

You will need:
~18' of 1 x 2 whitewood
~11' of 1 x 3 whitewood
~4'  of 1 x 4 whitewood
1" x 12" x 4' solid pine panel
4' x 2' sheet of 1/4" plywood

Keep in mind, this is for a 32" wide x 25" tall x 10" deep radiator. You will probably need to modify these measurements to make it fit your radiator and house.


Instructional Sites
This Old House
Easy2DIY

I started by making a cut list, which can be seen on the previous page. I then made the rough cuts on each piece of wood, and laid them out on the floor. Once all of the pieces were cut to length, I notched the corners of the legs and around the vent opening at the top.

I started the assembly with the side pieces because they seemed to be a simpler task than the front piece. I used my cheap doweling jig to make uniform, precise holes in the ends of the slats. The drill stop allowed me to make the holes just a little deeper than half the length of the dowels. This will make sure that I get the desired strength from the joint, and the dowel's length won't be all on one side of the joint.

Once the holes were drilled on the slat, I marked the center of the rail and made matching holes here to accept the dowels from the slat.

I didn't have this jig when I built the original cover, so I relied on other joints and a few pocket holes. The pocket holes I did use were cut by hand and did not come out as I had hoped. They worked, but I don't recommend it, you are better off buying the jig.

Now that I have the jig, it is much easier to make this joint and I recommend using pocket holes for all joints but the slats. They make a really nice tight fit and the fasteners are all well hidden. I am now building another radiator cover using nothing but pocket screws.

The pictures below show how I used the pocket hole jig to secure the rail (horizontal piece) to the stile (vertical piece). Just follow the directions included with the Jig. The positioning of the jig and the required length of the drill bit are determined by the thickness of boards you use.

Each rail should get 2 dowel holes on each end and on the side for the slats. Where the rail meets the stile, you should also use a pocket screw. Once the sides were assembled, I moved onto the front piece using the same method.

I had a router, but the bearing bits are only good for certain jobs. To shape long boards and get decent results, you need a router table. I didn't feel like buying one, so I bought some machine screws that were the right size and modified a cheap portable workbench that I had to hold my router upside down. I mounted a piece of plywood and some scrap wood as a fence and I now had something that would work as a router table.

I ran the back, inside edge of the two sides through the router with a straight cut bit. This created a nice rabbet that I could seat the plywood back into, so it wouldn't show from the sides.

To smooth the edges of the pine top, I used a 1/2" roundover bit to ease 3 of the sides of the panel. I left the back edge unfinished so it will stay flush against the wall.

Now the sides are put together and the back edges are rabbeted. The front piece was assembled with the same process as the sides, but without the rabbet.

Clamp the sides to the front and join them with 2 more pocket screws per joint. Next cut the plywood to size, fit it into the rabbet and nail it in place. Now you can secure the top with the routed edge to the rest of the cover. I used finishing nails since I was going to paint it, but you could use a pocket screw if you were planing to stain the wood and didn't want the nails to show.

When I slid the cover over the radiator, it got hung up on the shoe molding, so I had to mark the edges of the cover on the molding and cut it out. To cut the molding without taking it off the wall, I used a multi-master-like tool that I got from Harbor Freight for about $40. This tool allows you to cut something without removing it and it will not harm anything else in the area.

After a year of use, the heat made the wood shrink and swell. A few gaps opened up so I filled the gaps with painter's caulk. Because it's acrylic caulk, it resists cracking and is more flexible than wood putty or painter's putty.

I also painted the radiator and the inside of the cover black. This way, the radiator doesn't show through the slats and the foil insulation is less noticeable in the back.