UK households urged to check sofas in December

Households across the UK are being urged to check their sofas this December. To be precise, people are being urged to pay attention to the positioning of their sofas to ensure they are not blocking that important household appliance: the radiator.

There are several simple and cost-effective ways to ensure your home remains toasty this winter without any expenditure, and repositioning your large furniture is one such solution.

We spoke to several experts to figure out how to keep radiators running efficiently and seamlessly this winter — and they all had one common piece of advice when it came to this appliance: keep sofas away from radiators.

Contrary to popular belief, positioning large, clunky sofas very close to the radiators in your home will not trap the heat. Instead, it will make your radiators work that much harder to properly heat the premises.

Sam Carter, radiator expert at Appliances Direct explained: “Radiators primarily heat a room through a process called convection, where they warm the air immediately around them, which then rises and circulates throughout the room. Placing large items like a sofa in front of a radiator blocks this airflow, and heat gets trapped and absorbed by the furniture. 

“This reduces the warmth circulating in your room, and can mean your system has to work harder for longer to keep your home at temperature, leading to higher bills. Leave a good 15-30cm between a radiator and any large pieces of furniture, more space is always better.”

Nick Duggan, managing director of The Radiator Centre, said: “Look at things that can improve the energy efficiency of a room. The less heat you lose, the less you will need to top up with more heat from the radiators, hence any improvements that limit the amount of ‘heat-loss’ from a room are worthwhile. 

“When thinking about heat efficiencies, take care not to block any radiators with furniture and ideally try not to use radiator covers either. Anything like this will block the airflow, stopping the heat being able to radiate.”

Fiona Peake, household finance expert at Ocean Finance, cautions: “Putting furniture in front or drying clothes directly on them [radiators] stops heat from circulating. It also makes the boiler work harder.”

Instead, Fiona suggests: “Keep the space around radiators clear so the warmth spreads properly. If you need to dry clothes indoors, use a clothes horse in a ventilated room instead.”

Tom Edmunds, heating expert and general manager of Wunda Group, advises rearranging your furniture as that can sometimes be just the trick to enhance the circulation of heat inside homes. He adds: “If you haven’t already, move furniture such as sofas, chairs, and beds away from heat sources to ensure they aren’t obstructing or absorbing heat.”

Heating specialist Ryan Willdig from Heatforce echoes the advice as he shares: “Placing sofas, curtains, or even radiator covers in front of your radiators traps the heat behind them.” Ryan warns: “It’ll force the systems to work that extra bit harder, increasing your bills, straining your boiler and producing heat that isn’t going to go anywhere.”

The heating expert further adds: “Radiators shouldn’t have anything in front of them, and this includes (cosmetic) radiator covers. They need to be completely bare to ensure the heat can travel around the room properly that you want to heat.”