Another radiator question...

[orangebelly]

OK, so now that the radiators are out of the house, I've got one more question...

The three bedrooms have seven section radiators each (or did originally). One bedroom's radiator was replaced at some point with a modern, non-ornated, radiator that doesn't match the rest of the house. After the remodel upstairs, one of the bedrooms will be a smaller room than it was originally, and we'll have a five section radiator that matches the others left over.

So long story short, can we use the five section left over in the shrunken bedroom?? In other words, was there a formula the old timers used to determine how many sections were appropriate for each rooms radiator???

Thanks in advance!

(gravity feed system, 1910 house, 12% reduction in the bedroom square footage)

[firecontrol]

http://www.burnham.com/Sizing.cfm
Try this to figure out the sizing used for cast iron radiators. With this information you should be able to figure out how they figured the initial installation as far as square footage of radiation per square footage of the room they were in. Use the same ratio to decide if the extra unit you have will be big enough to heat the room you're looking at putting it into. If it's to big you can adjust the valve supplying it to "throttle" it back to what you need.
And in answer to your question...... yes they used a formula to figure out radiation and still do.

[perel]

Keep in mind that back when your system was originally installed, it was common practice to keep a window open in the middle of the winter.. the system was probably sized to support this practice, which makes it way oversized by modern standards. You *might* want to take this opportunity to reconsider the sizing in your other rooms as well, especially if this is a steam system.. didn't catch if it was steam or hot water.