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Old 06-30-2014, 09:06 AM   #19 (permalink)
Daox
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Agreed, anodizing would be ideal, but cost prohibitive of course for us. I also don't think it'll really matter in the end.

Anyway, what we're talking about is thermal radiation, one of the three forms of heat transfer:
1) conduction (heat moving through a material)
2) convection (heat altering the density of a gas/liquid and allowing it to move)
3) radiation

Radiation is harder to think about, but basically everything in the line of sight of an object radiates heat to or from it. Lets use for example, yourself. Where you are right now, you're radiating heat to and getting radiant heat from everything that is within the line of sight of your body. Anything that has a higher temperature than your skin radiates heat towards you, and everything that has a lower temperature than your skin you're radiating heat towards. This is the principle of radiant heated floors, or why you can feel heat from a bright light bulb from 20+ feet away (or heat from a really hot fire from far away).

So, basically if you paint your radiator black, it will emit more radiant heat. IE it will be more efficient without airflow as stated. However, the paint does add a layer of insulation, so when air is flowing over it, it is less efficient.

In the end, I doubt that you'd even notice a difference from painting or anodizing the radiator, but you can give it a try.
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