Can a towel heater heat a bathroom?

Kelbie

Hi, I am certainly not a plumber but we have built our own house and i have dealt with most of the designing ordering and project managing myself. We have towel rails in the bathrooms instead of normal radiators as they look nicer. They work really well but are plumbed into the Gas Central heating and come on in conjunction with the main heating (on a timer). I searched lots of different manufacturers to make sure sure i got the correct size for the required output that my plumber advised me i needed.
The main thing i noted with this excersize was that there can be a lot of difference between manufacturers. Make sure you go for a good quality well known brand to plumbers as apposed to a cheaper brand, which have less output and not as well made. I actually have 2 very large ones in my main bathroom either side of the door which is adequate, but can see why are having problems as they generally dont perform as well as normal radiators. Your situation sound a bit like they forgot about the bathroom and put it in as an afterthought??

I would be inclined to ask a professional plumber to add either a normal radiator or a larger, good quality towel radiator plumbed directly into the main heating.

Hope this helps

Cardew

Alfie3121 wrote: »

Thanks all! The central heating is gas but the towel rail is 100% electric and not connected to any of the other systems. Without having it in front of me, I would say it is at the bottom end of the power scale in watts because it is once of the smaller sized ones, so I would guess at 250 watts or less.

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Is your flat built to NHBC certification?

I would take it up with the developers initially - and then start making a real fuss.

It is real penny pinching not to extend gas CH so that there is a radiator in the bathroom.

Alfie3121

Sounds good Cardew. I'm pretty sure it's NHBC certified. Any ideas who would be the next person to contact after the developers, I'm getting no where with them at the moment!

Alfie3121

Hi Katsclaws, thanks for the suggestion. My worry with that is a) the cost to run the thing and b) baring in mind I think power on it is around 250w so it takes ages. Like I said once, by mistake I left it on from 7am to 8pm and the room was warm - not hot, just warm.

HappyMJ

It's not very expensive but more expensive than the gas would have been had there been a radiator in there.

24 hours a day at 250W at 12p/kWh would cost 72 pence per day or £22 per month.

You said you only have it on for a half hour before you use the bathroom so that would cost 1 and a half pennies each time. Once per day would be 45p per month.

Alfie3121

Thanks HappyMJ that's really useful information. I would love to put it on for an hour or 2 before going in the bathroom, but at the moment that would mean waking up at 4am! haha

Pincher

Alfie3121 wrote: »

I recently moved into a new build property which is a one bedroom flat.

If you bought directly from the developer, you should have up to three years for defects, but it is better to submit a "snag list" of all defects and have it on record as soon as possible. If you intend to get serious, you should find a surveyor specialising in snagging.

If you are generally happy with the apartment, I would forget the developers, and just make improvements as you see fit.


http://www.smiths-env.com/products_selector.asp

Select Domestic:

Select Bathroom. There are low voltage versions for high humidity areas.

They are essentially a car radiator with a fan. Don't forget you can mount the SpaceSaver at ceiling level. Just have to build a box to encase it.

Catster888

There are some good heated towel rails on the market that can deliver high outputs.

There is a site dedicated to radiators and towel rails may take a look there try Radiators U Like .co.uk . They seem to detail everything by BTUs so if you can find out how much you require this will make the job easier.

Electric towel rails will never produce quite as much as a central heating radiator though, so if it is possible to connect to your central heating we have a Colosseum radiator in our bathroom which is VERY powerfull. We have some towel hooks next to it so the towels or dressing gowns get the heat when hung next to it. Looks lovely too. x

HappyMJ

Catster888 wrote: »

We have some towel hooks next to it so the towels or dressing gowns get the heat when hung next to it. Looks lovely too. x

"We have"...sounds very much like you are promoting your own products and services....sorry spam button time...