[lunarhighway]

i've just started renovating my "new" house... it was build in 1938 so it leaves some things to be desired in terms of insulation etc, but generally it was well maintained over the years and renovated about 10 years ago.

it's heated by old radiators, wich seem decent enough, with recent thermostatic valves. they're not a real pretty sight though so i'd like to make an encaseing that runs the entire lenght of the wall covering the radiator and the pipes running to and from them, these can be insulated and the encaseing could house some more wall insulation as well. internally the rad will he boxed in separately with air intakes on the bottom and top of the encaseing. however IS this a good idea? since i've read most of the heat delivered from such a radiator is trough convection a boxed in rad should imho improve airflow, but i can imagine inpropper construction can lead to problems and boxing in the thermostatic valve might cause it to kick out to soon, and perhaps i'll trap the heat inside.

a collegue has a similar setup and he claims it works rather well.

any advice on this??