Originally posted by fergie
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Rated output power of a radiator is a combination of both convection and direct infrared line of sight radiation from the panel - even if it can freely convect you'll lose nearly all of the direct IR radiation into the room having a radiator behind a dresser or sofa etc... All the infrared output of the panel will do is heat the back of the dresser.
Although there's some debate about what proportion of the heat into the room is convection vs radiation on a convector panel, I reckon you'd lose about 30-40% of the heat output capability of the radiator by reducing it to convection only.
In our living room we have 3 linked bay window radiators - which cope just fine most of the year but as soon as the Christmas tree goes in they start to struggle to reach the set point and warm up times get a lot longer, despite there being no obstruction to the convection into the room. It's the loss of the direct IR radiation wasted warming the back of the tree that is responsible..
For any given radiator and room situation there is a maximum set point the room can reach with the radiator going full blast - as you get close to that maximum especially within a degree or so the call for heat to try to get the last little bit of the way there will skyrocket, hence if its struggling a small drop in set point can help a lot.
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