What does it cost to run an electric heated towel rail?

Splitzafrenic

Hi,

Does anyone know what it cost to run an electric heated towel rail. My husband isn't keen on me using it as he thinks it eat electric, but I read somewhere that its about £5 per month which to me is affordable, but I cant find that info again!

Cheers:)

good_advice

It is the old saying, you switch it on you pay for it!
How many kw does it use? Then it depends on how much a kw is on your tariff.

I am with your husband on this, something that you do not need.

dogshome

On the towel rail there will be a 'Rateing' label - probably on the back - which states how many Kw it uses
If you multiply this up to make it 1,000, the number you have used to make the 1,000 is the number of hours it has to run to use One unit of electricity

espresso

A typical towel rail will not be rated at anywhere near a kW - ususally between 60W and 150W.

If rated at 60W it could be used for over 16 hours for one unit of electricity.

If rated at 150W it could be on for 6.66 hours for one unit at a typical price of 12p.

amiehall

dogshome wrote: »

On the towel rail there will be a 'Rateing' label - probably on the back - which states how many Kw it uses
If you multiply this up to make it 1,000, the number you have used to make the 1,000 is the number of hours it has to run to use One unit of electricity

What? Maybe I've misunderstood?

I always thought imagine the towel rail is 2kw, it means that it uses 2 units of elec for every hour it is on (at full tilt)?

dogshome

Hi amiehall
For every unit of Elec you are billed for you get 1000 watts of Elect -(1Kwh) Lets say you have switched on a 100 watt light bulb, to know how much the Elec cost will be, you divide 100 into1000 which equals 10, so you have to leave that light on for 10 hours to use 1 Kwh

Towel Rails use a lot less than a 100 watts, but the label on it will give a figure which you can divide into 1,000 to see how many hours it has to be on to use 1 Kwh

grahamc2003

amiehall wrote: »

What? Maybe I've misunderstood?

I always thought imagine the towel rail is 2kw, it means that it uses 2 units of elec for every hour it is on (at full tilt)?

The power range seems to be in the region of 150W to 600W - some with thermostats and some without.

So the cost range (at 12p/kWh) will be between about 1.8p/h and 7.2p/h, or about 43p/day to £1.20/day (probably less due to the thermostat kicking in sometimes), or about £13/month to £37/month (max, will be less due to thermostat).

Whether it is worth it depends on how much you value warm towels and to a certain extent, a warmer bathroom.

Pincher

2kW is a two bar heater, which will set your towel blazing in minutes.

Cardew

good_advice wrote: »

I am with your husband on this, something that you do not need.

You could equally argue that we don't need to have our computers on and wasting electricty by contributing posts to MSE

Splitzafrenic

It turns out we have a 120w towel rail. The reason I feel I need it on in the winter is that we have no heating upstairs at all. Its a reasonably modern house, well insulated, night storage heaters downstairs. However the towels aren't drying now, so I am leaning towards using this as a heater / towel rail if cost effective.
So if I have understood you guys correctly, it will take 8 hours to use 1KW. Sounds good enough to me :-)

testpilot4321

I am also looking into this subject as I have a large 400w towel rail in my bathroom. My place is a new build and not too cold so not wanting the heating on yet, however it would be nice to have a warm bathroom in the mornings.
I have been looking for a timer switch I can the normal fused on/off switch with that is outside the bathroom but so far struggling a little.