Pickled Egg Quiz

[bobins]

Is it for use indoors, or outdoors ?

[mickthemaverick]

It is used in the room where it is pictured!

[MattBLancs]

It's a very intriguing sprung thingamajig, but I'm distracted by the bed frame legs on double upturned lids - is that to allow creation of a moat for each leg - preventing some sort of invading ant from crawling into bed?

[Gibbo2286]

Mick uses it to help him do a back flip into bed.

[CitroJim]

Mick uses it to help him do a back flip into bed.

Shades of Wallace and Gromit

[PaulC5]

Rock climbers use a smaller version for exercises to strengthen the hand grip but is this one to help hold the sheets in place at the mattress base sides ?

[mickthemaverick]

Rock climbers use a smaller version for exercises to strengthen the hand grip but is this one to help hold the sheets in place at the mattress base sides ?

An interesting thought Paul but not on the mark I'm afraid!

[mickthemaverick]

It's a very intriguing sprung thingamajig, but I'm distracted by the bed frame legs on double upturned lids - is that to allow creation of a moat for each leg - preventing some sort of invading ant from crawling into bed?

Spot on in a way Matt, I had a bed bug infestation a few years ago which resulted in ditching the old wooden bed frame (out the window!!) and then after full sanitisation of the whole room including all furniture and contents I assembled the new metal framed bed and stood it in the bug traps to be absolutely sure!! Never had another problem and not bothered removing the traps as they aren't doing any harm and may save me from the grasp of a marauding something or other one day!!

[mickthemaverick]

I think I'll let this run another day or two and see if anyone comes up with the right answer!!

[mickthemaverick]

In the abscence of anymore guesses here is the reveal!!

The device in position

The jobs a goodun!

I was concerned that a large proportion of the heat produced by the radiator was going up behind the curtains and heating the glass rather than the room!! Hence the device which keeps the curtains tight against the wall behind the radiator thus ensuring that most of the heat is guided into the room!! It works, since installing it I have been able to turn the thermostat on the rad down from 3 to 1.5 and maintain the same temperature in the room!!

[Vic Evans]

Interesting.
In my 40 years as a building services design engineer I understood that a thermostatic rad valve was set to a required room temperature/number & left at that to do it's job in maintaining room temp.
Once the set temp. was achieved the valve automatically reduced the radiator water flow & hence output & then modulates to maintain the set temp. No adjustment of the valve is required.
If you're setting the valve to a lower value you must be setting a reduced room temperature.

[mickthemaverick]

I wouldn't argue with that Vic but it is more a case of normally having to set a higher temperature than actually needed in order to compensate for the excess loss through the window. What I have effectively done is increased the insulation in the room, thereby reducing losses and allowing the radiator to keep the room at the required temperature with less input. Hence once installed the room became too hot without those losses and so I was able to turn down the rad which was the object of the exercise.

[Vic Evans]

Fair enough but it seems your thermostatic valve isn't working as it should if you have to manually turn it down to compensate for reduced heat loss when it should do this automatically.
What about daytime when curtains are open or change in outside temperature? Do you still have to manually alter valve setting?
Surely if you set it to say 20 deg & radiator is sized & balanced correctly for min. design conditions with curtain open the valve should regulate water flow to rad automatically when demand is reduced.
Not looking for argument here, just very curious

[mickthemaverick]

Yes I see your point Vic and it is feasible that the valve is not very good, I did replace it 3 years ago as the original one was stuck solid from never being adjusted. I think there are three things involved here:

1, The valve is of course sitting on the end of the rad and therefore measures the air temperature quite close to the heat source which often means it needs to be set a couple of degrees higher than wanted at the far side of the room. Being basically a convection current that rises from the rad and across the ceiling to the other side, there are inevitable losses on the way across so this device helps minimise the losses to the window overnight.

2, The actual problem was mainly caused by the curtains draping over the radiator when closed and funnelling most of the convection heat straight up the window instead of into the room, which doesn't happen when the curtains are open of course.

3, The main heating system remote thermostat is sited downstairs in the dining room at the coldest point and it takes care of outside temperature changes according to its settings.

At the end of the day whether those are the correct reasons or not the fact is it works and has therefore reduced my heating costs a tad!!

[bobins]

I guess it depends on how a TRV actually works - does it snap shut when the desired room temperature is reached, or does it gradually close as the room temperature gradually climbs ? Think of it at the extreme - if Mick's room had no ceiling and was open to the sky then the TRV would be wound full open all the time to try and heat the room. The better insulated the room is, the lower the flow required through the TRV, and you'd get a lower flow by turning the TRV down.... that's assuming the TRV's action is to gradually close as the room temperature gradually increases.
A TRVs action should be thought of less as a 'binary' room temperature regulator, and more of a flow rate modulator across a temperature gradient.