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According to Jeff Howells in the Sunday Telegraph, a waste of money. Apparently about 20% of heat loss from the house is through the walls, so if you could prevent all that you would save 20% of your heating bill. As these things cover nowhere near the full area of the walls, the percentage of heat loss they would prevent is miniscule.
Yeh its just a thought, I already have cavity wall insulation, double glazing, and loft insulation.
Hi Paul, I am sure some expert somewhere may disagree with me but from my knowledge of building construction I have to say it all depends.
What it depends on is what your wall is made of, how it is made and how exposed it is externally. A cavity wall will loose less heat and an insulated cavity wall even less, solid brick walls are less efficient than cavity walls and reflector panels will certainly prevent heat loss. If your walls are modern and well insulated then there is little point in installing reflector panels as the wall does store heat and release it back into the room over a period of hours.
The secret is not to pay too much for any energy saving devices or materials as the payback time may be years rather than months. If your external walls are noticeably cold to the touch then yes insulate them in whatever way you can.
Ken
Cheers, its just the radiators I`m interested in, not the whole walls 
Bought some radflex recently (via Amazon). They're easy to fit and can be lifted out to clean.....Difficult to say whether they have a major effect but am sure that some of our rooms are warmer and have managed to turn the thermostat down a degree or so..but that just might be me being mean 
They're designed for rads on outside walls...for the price, it's worth a punt
One of the heating advisory web sites say that some heat is reflected back to the rad from the silver foil, and its probably more useful if the rad is backed on to an outside wall, why spend money heating a wall.
It turns out now from government figures that more heat is lost through your wall than double glazing which is not that brilliant either and heat loss through your ceiling is quite minimal if your bedroom above has a fitted carpet.
People living in a middle terrace house are the best off as only their front and rear walls are exposed.
I know one friend who had cavity wall insulation and he said he noticed no difference and his central heating stayed at the same setting. What he said was that the condensation in his rooms and windows suddenly started to appear which it never did before insulation.
I'm sure cavity wall insulation must make a difference but I suspect there are other factors as to how effective it is.
Quote: but am sure that some of our rooms are warmer and have managed to turn the thermostat down a degree or so..but that just might be me being mean WinkGrinGrin
Placebo effect
Quote: the condensation in his rooms and windows suddenly started to appear which it never did before insulation.
All buildings require ventilation which in this case has been prevented possibly by blocking the air vents. Kitchens and bathrooms are the the obvious areas that are at risk that can be reduced by having window trickle vents fitted plus extractor fans in extreme cases.
As the reflector panels are easy to fit and cheap to buy they might well give you some satisfaction, effective or not.
With the aid of an infra red thermometer I have had in mind for some time to take and log the measurements throughout the year of the differences on both sides of the walls/windows.
It will definitely save you money but the old chestnut comes into play - it all depends - in this case on what you pay for the foils and how good is your wall insulation. Some good old foil insulation sticky tape is what I used as I got it FOC.
The only way to demonstrate to the sceptics st to do what we used to do in the old energy saving days ie use a thermal imaging camera from outside your house and you should be able to see the outline of your radiator in a bright red colour. Put the foil behind then repeat the exercise. If the bright red is the same you are wasting your time, however my experience was that a duller red was now visible which demonstrated less heat escaping. the amount of heat saved is? - well it all depends as Ken said on the wall construction. cavity wall insulation is the big saver, compared to double glazing which saves helluva lot less. It can all be worked out by calculating the 'u' value of your structure then working out the wall area. The 'u' value of a well insulated wall is around 0.4W/SqM/ºC. whereas the typical 'u' value of a double glazed window is 2.8W/SqM/ºC. So you can see at a galnce where the bigegst savings are - larger area better 'u' value. For that reason any savings on reflector foils is very minimal by comparison, especially if you have cavity wall insulation.
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