eli5: Why are radiators in houses often situated under a window- surely this is the worst place and the easiest way to lose all the heat?

Question

eli5: Why are radiators in houses often situated under a window- surely this is the worst place and the easiest way to lose all the heat?

In: 2851

Answer 1

Not necessarily – between my century home with oil fired steam radiators and several older apartments, just because windows are OLD, doesn’t mean they can’t be relatively good insulators (my 100+ yr old house had original double pane windows that were surprisingly good) – yes, a lot of old windows suck, but not all.

In any case, the positioning of a radiator is always going to fight with wall-space for tables, sofas/chairs and bookshelves, shelving units, dressers etc. Modern heat and return air vents can go UNDER or BEHIND these things with some limits. You _tend_ not to put these things right in front of windows, so the wall space under the window isn’t going to be occupied, so why not put the radiator there?