Why heaters are placed near windows?
In: Physics
This is often to cause convection. Cold air falls from the window and is warmed by the heater. This causes warm air to rise creating a convection current. This helps circulate heat throughout the space rather than just near the heater.
If you put the heater on an interior wall opposite the window you would end up with a room that is cold near the window, hot near the heater and a range of temperature as you walk across the room.
In short putting the heater at the coldest area provides better comfort.
It’s hard to answer this without more specific detail about the kind of heater and kind of room or window you’re talking about. But many gas heaters, for example, produce carbon monoxide, and need to be used in ventilated spaces – thus the desire to install them (particularly in complexes like schools or hospitals) near windows.
Oo I know this one!
It’s because of the pandemic. No, not that one, the 1918 flu pandemic.
As the 1918 flu pandemic raged, people looked around for something, anything to help protect themselves from the disease. Some people came across an idea from the late 1800s called “The Fresh Air Movement”. The basic idea was that stale air put you at risk of catching disease and that the best way to prevent disease was to spend your time outdoors or in well ventilated rooms. That meant, keeping your windows open, no matter what.
Buildings built after the pandemic were frequently designed to have the windows open all the time, and one of the ways open windows were accommodated was by placing the radiator directly below the window where it could heat the cold air coming in from outside.
Eventually, under the window just became where the radiator went.
Some more info here
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/945136599/how-spanish-flu-pandemic-changed-home-heat-radiators
Other answers below are correct, but in general, you want the room to average out as much as possible to the desired temperature. So, you place your heat near where the room will be colder (near the window). In large commercial buildings, the air conditioner is typically set up to blow cold air toward the window, since the sun causes the window to be the greatest source of heat.
I have seen issues in the past where HVAC (Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, the term used by those in the field) technicians who are used to setting up systems for offices with people cause problems in server rooms (or other areas with large heat-generating equipment) by trying to cool the OUTPUT of the racks/equipment. Their logic is to blow cold air at the hottest part of the room, to bring the room down to the desired temperature. (This makes sense for people, but not for equipment. People want to be comfortable all over, but equipment that uses fans/airflow to keep cool want cold air at their intake, and they do not care about how hot the rest of the room.)
Latest Answers