Window Heater

Vertical window in wall. The draft is only a slight one as I have the window opening filled with 3/4 inch Styrofoam behind the two pane glass.

A radiator under the window is what I am making. This room is a corner room with two windows, so they gave it two heating vents (forced air), but they are on either side of the *other* window as that's the direction the rafters in the floor run. To put one of the vents under this window would require the ducts to run under the rafters rather than between them lowering the ceiling further in the basement.

Lol. I did put a piece of cardboard in the window behind the slatted blinds with a gap at the edges. That sort of works, but I think trying to get an air draft to follow a gutter sideways to a downspout would be a trick.

Another thing I thought of was to use the plastic window kits to make an airspace and just blowing air through it with a fan. That would make all the cold come out at the other end and with the air moving a bit faster than the draft, it wouldn't be cold. But I don't want to hear the durn fan. I guess I could use one that is very, very quiet. But that's too mechanical of a solution and the plastic is not very pretty. When I am done my window radiator will actually look pretty nice.

The other outside wall already has one. I could move it to one of the two inside walls. I can either have a view of my basement stairs or inside the shower. Both are pretty interesting options except for the view of the basement stairs.

What I have now *is* a strip of resistors.... Oh, you mean keep the user away from the "high" heat. Eh, I think I'll go with the metal plate. It will look nice and I think it will end up working better to boot.

Every hour, on the hour. 8^o

Drafts travel along and down walls. I know you said "don't suggest I move", but if you could get even six inches further from the wall, you'd be a lot more comfortable.

I think it would work. But one experiment is worth a thousand guesses. wh ich is why I suggested trying it using cardboard. It would only take about 15 minutes to try. the down spout would be a fairly long column of denser air which would help to increase the flow. I think one down spout at one end would work. But a down spout in the center would be better as would a down spout at each end.

Dan

Sure. Long-wavelength IR; things that look cloudy white at visible wavelengths are transparent to longer wavelengths. You can't see UV light, because the human eye lens is a cloudy white in that part of the spectrum. Good insulation has to be opaque.

Unless, the styrofoam is the foil-backed kind?

I wanted to improve passive cooling of a computer once and constructed a test of the chimney effect. I positioned a 3 foot long 3 or 4 inch diameter aluminum tube over a 100 watt light bulb. I was not able to measure any movement of the air whatsoever. I tried the most sensitive thing I could find which was a bit of down on a thread. It never moved when held near the top of the chimney.

I guess looking for air movement to cool a computer box is one thing and the slow, steady draft from a window is another. But the gutter would be in my way a lot of the time and I'm happy with the heater idea.

Air movement is the key. But any air movement that hits me needs to be some degrees warmer than ambient. The only way to eliminate the draft I can conceive of is to heat the air next to the window so it isn't falling on me. I guess it isn't really even important for the heater to be right behind me. If it were higher up it would still stop the draft and perhaps even better, stopping it before it gets started.

If it wasn't so expensive, I'd get a sheet of aluminum the full size of the window. Then it would approach the model of heating a space between the Styrofoam and the room. A piece 12 inches tall and as wide as the window is going to run $60 with shipping. I should try to find a local source. But I bet it costs more for the material. lol

No, it's the ugly green type. I don't think I could stand to look at foil from either side. In fact, at some point I am going to put up something that will cover the Styrofoam. It's not only green, but covered with writing. I may be a geek, but that's pretty ugly, even to me!

I also miss the light. Sitting in a room without daylight is not so fun. I have a work table in the living room with a great view, but that whole room is just too cold. Lots of glass and even skylights. I use that in the warmer months.

I'm blessed with 3 huge window panes at work. I use a 10" fan (on the floor) to suck the cool air and move it into the isle, works well. THe temperature stabilizes after about 1/2 hour.

Cheers

So that leaves the shower view; but hey, someone might pay good money for that kind of view! ;-)

Tim

Good point -- I've found in my poorly heated apartment, I need to encourage convection to keep the temperature even. A fan pointed at the top of the window bank (or away at the bottom, as in your case) does wonders, despite increasing the air currents overall.

Tim

FYI, "Styrofoam" is a brand name of a particular chemical composition (polystyrene, of course). The colored stuff is one of several kinds of isocyanate (polyurethane).

Tim

m

Nope, it says "extruded polystyrene" right on it.

It's called Styrofoam the way office copiers are called Xerox machines. No one says "extruded polystyrene".

But to get anyone to use the shower I'd have to install a shower curtain inside my shower stall.

Actually, that would be pretty funny to have a window in the shower. What would people think?

The problem is the aluminum tube cooled the air. if you insulated the outside of the tube, it ought to have worked. I've certainly seen rising drafts cause by an old light bulb, no chimney needed.

The tube might need a "hat" to make sure room air didn't plunge down the tube from the top. You want the whole column of air to rise in unison, not have bubbles of hot air tumbling in it. There were only passive cooling chimneys used a hundred years ago that had features like that.

Jon