Mrs timba wants to replace a standard CH water-filled bathroom rad with a heated towel rail. Only one rad fitted.
She's interested in electric because it can be programmed separately to the CH, which makes a certain amount of sense.
Do I get:
Similar BTU output to the extant rad to both heat the room and dry towels?
Dual water and electric in the same rad? (less effort, pipes can stay 😉)
Something else. Procrastination is sadly running out of road, eventually I'll have to commit
Thanks
I would keep the rad you have and get an electric towel rail as well. Towel rails connected to the CH are not very efficient at heating the room and useless in the summer when the heating is turned off. An electric towel rail can be controlled as your OH says.
I hadn't realised you could get a dual fuel towel rail until I read this and having done a quick scan of both the Victorian Plumbing and Best Heating websites (both of which I've used successfully) I'm tempted to get one myself.
We have heated towel rails connected to the central heating in both the shower room and the bathroom. Both were chosen for looks and a convenient size, rather than any heat output calculation and as both rooms are smallish they keep them toasty.
Guides that tell you what size radiator you need are as barmy as those which tell you what size telly to get. You won't have a wall big enough, and it takes nearly a day to get all the numbers together to plug into the calculator.
Towel rails don't have anywhere near the thermal output of a good rad so check the specs.
We've had towel rails on the CH with an electric element for towel drying when the CH isn't on and it's great. Not so important in our modern, warm house but still useful.
I would keep the rad you have and get an electric towel rail as well. Towel rails connected to the CH are not very efficient at heating the room and useless in the summer when the heating is turned off. An electric towel rail can be controlled as your OH says.
There's only space for one or the other. Stacking an electric towel rail above the rad won't be a "something else" consideration
Towel rails don't have anywhere near the thermal output of a good rad so check the specs.
That's the sort of practical stuff that I'm struggling with. The flat-panel types seem to be better in practice than tubular, while colour (v. chrome) seems to make a difference
We have heated towel rails connected to the central heating in both the shower room and the bathroom. Both were chosen for looks and a convenient size, rather than any heat output calculation and as both rooms are smallish they keep them toasty.
That's handy to know. What style are they? (see above^^)
One is matt black (no doubt they call it anthracite or obsidian or some such) with D shaped uprights and flat 70mm (approx) rails. The other is tubular chrome. Both picked up from B&Q on a whim because they looked nice.
We have a gas boiler and the flow temp is set to hot. All rads in the house have TRVs except the one next to the thermostat and these two.
We have heated towel rails connected to the central heating in both the shower room and the bathroom. Both were chosen for looks and a convenient size, rather than any heat output calculation
Same here. The one in the bathroom is fine for heat, but I'll admit the one in the downstairs cloakroom (photo below) struggles to keep that warm, probably related to the fact that there's a pipe vent in the ceiling associated with the extractor fan.
Also, both have an immersion element in them, in turn connected to a timer switch on the other side of the wall. You can see the wire at the far side of the rad. I dont think you can get this particular model of switch now, but there must be an equivalent alternative
Not that it helps, but we have a CH water filled one, paired with the electric underfloor heating we have it seems to all work quite well. Although as it's chrome it needs constant polishing!