Best heater for bathroom

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi, hoping for advice:

My parents rent a house with electric storage heaters. There is no heating in the bathroom at all which isnt great in winter. The bathroom has one of those heaters that goes around the light fitting but it has never worked properly. They have spoken to their landlord who has said that if they find out what type of heating they would like and get some prices he will sort it out for them.

So what is the best, most cost effective way of heating a small bathroom without central heating? My parents like the idea of a heated towel rail but I have my doubts over whether it would be powerful enough. I think a fan heater would be better. Parents worry that a fan heater would be expensive to run (their electricity bills are already huge).

Is there another option we havent though of?

HappyMJ

I'd go with the fan heater too. They aren't expensive as you aren't in the room for very long. 15 minutes at 2kW is about 0.5kWh that'll cost about 8p or so if they are on an E7 tariff.

Mankysteve

All forms of electric heating cost roughly the same, fan heaters are slightly more expensive but not by much.

With electric heating it's all about its delivery and whether you can use cheap night eleci.

Myser

Mankysteve wrote: »

All forms of electric heating cost roughly the same

Not necessarily true.

You can buy infra-red lamp heaters for bathrooms which are available with integrated fan extraction which use significantly less power.

If you want a neat solution, there are modern versions of the circular heater light fitting they have at the moment.

As others have said you could use a fan heater. There are low-voltage plinth heaters available too. These will give you instant heat.

The other option is to have an electric wall mounted heater/towel rail. Dimplex do quite a few stylish ones:

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/products/domestic_heating/kitchens_bathrooms/index.htm

Antispam

Is it wise to have a heater in the bathroom that uses electric? Thats why many bathrooms dont have electric sockets in for possible electrocution. So you are limited to what you can use

If you use a electric heater your more likely to use a extension cable

Myser

Antispam wrote: »

Is it wise to have a heater in the bathroom that uses electric? Thats why many bathrooms dont have electric sockets in for possible electrocution. So you are limited to what you can use

If you use a electric heater your more likely to use a extension cable

It's quite common for modern bathrooms that are used by the elderly to have a wall-mounted fan heater in them:

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/gifs/nav_panel/kitchens_bathrooms/downflow_fan_heaters/2_col/2_Col_bathroomFanHeatersFX20_FX20VE.jpg

The heater is wired directly into a wiring circuit not plugged into a socket.

You should not have anything other than a dedicated shaver socket in the bathroom.

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks for the replies. The plan is to get a heater permanently fitted by an electrician. Are the fan heaters easy to get fitted? The bathroom is completely tiled. Would this make it more difficult? Sorry I am a bit clueless about electrics.

Thanks for the link to the dimplex site, some very useful info on there. It does say that the towel rails are not designed to heat the bathroom but there are radiators that would do the job. The cost of these will be much more than a fan heater though.

Myser

If you opt for the wall-mounted fan heater, it will probably cost around £30. They are available with pullcords for the bathroom.

The wiring can be run in conduit attached to the wall to the nearest mains ring. If done properly, it won't look too bad.

Antispam

A wall mounted heater is I agree but thats different to having a fan heater, oil heater, or bar fire which will have usually a extension cable.

You can get heaters on the walls or ceiling (built in the light) my point is is it really safe to have any other heaters because I would be worried about electrocution, tripping over a extension cable plus if it did cause a issue you may not be covered under house insurance. The a good reason they dont put wall sockets in bathrooms

You need it properly fitted as you mentioned my previous post was really regarding other types of heaters as someone said use a fan heater

Myser wrote: »

It's quite common for modern bathrooms that are used by the elderly to have a wall-mounted fan heater in them:

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/gifs/nav_panel/kitchens_bathrooms/downflow_fan_heaters/2_col/2_Col_bathroomFanHeatersFX20_FX20VE.jpg

The heater is wired directly into a wiring circuit not plugged into a socket.

You should not have anything other than a dedicated shaver socket in the bathroom.