Bathroom Heaters ?

[andrewc]

There is no overnight heating in my tiny shower room. It's getting down to 5C in there in the mornings and that's not very comfortable!

I have a wall mounted downflow heater, but it's not really doing the job.   Would an infra red/ radiant heater be any better ?  If so, any recommendations ?

[Kim]

Electric towel rail?  Not a lot of heat, but a good start, and it means your towels dry out quicker...


Otherwise watts are watts.  Radiant heaters are better at making humans feel warm, but they all heat the room at the same rate.

[rogerzilla]

What sort of heating does the rest of the house have?

Anyway, you're supposed to be a well 'ard camper!

[Kim]

It doesn't matter how hard you are - if your condensation is getting condensation, that's a recipe for mould.

[DrMekon]

I loved those old fashioned electric bathroom heaters as a kid. Squirt loads of mum's nail polish remover down the loo, light the toilet paper off the heater, and chuck it down the loo, then flush.

Never blew the window out, but gave it a hell of a rattle Great fun.

[andrewc]

What sort of heating does the rest of the house have?

Anyway, you're supposed to be a well 'ard camper!

Electric storage heaters.....

A towel rail would presumably need to be mains fed, and that would involve getting our resident spark in & re-tiling, something I'm fairly anxious to avoid.

[rogerzilla]

Electric underfloor heating isn't too tricky.  Mind you, you need an electrician to do pretty much any work in a bathroom these days.  i thought the Tories were supposed to be reducing the nanny state?

[Feanor]

This is what were advised when we did extension work here at Lowe Towers:

Electric underfloor is great for taking the chill off floor tiles, but doesn't usually do much as space heating ( unlike wet underfloor, which can do usefull space heating ).
We have found this to be true.
The bathroom with electric underfloor needs the towel-rail ( water-based-CH fed ) to maintain room temperature.   The electric UFH is just a nice tootsie-warming luxury.
The bigger extension downstairs has wet UFH, and it can maintain room temperature.

+1 for a towel rail.

[Pancho]

Our bathrooms are only heated when we have the central heating on (which is rarely). Apart from that, they just chill down to outside ambient. Never had any problems (but they are well ventilated (aka "draughty")).

Sure, it "feels" a bit chilly at 0500 but not to a bothersome degree.

[andrewc]

Cheers gents.  I think underfloor heating is no no at the moment.  I'd have to take the floor up and I'm after a quick & easy fix.

I could probably fit a heated rail type thing.  What power does it require ?  It would be adjacent to the electrically heated hot water tank, so a feed from there would be feasible.  The only convenient plug is on the other side of the wall

I should state that the last time I tried to do anything electrical (replacing a light fitting) I managed to blow the main fuse for the entire flat.....

[Pancho]

You can't do any 'leccy stuff on a DIY basis anymore.

[Kim]

Sure you can.  But unless it's a trivial replacement (this isn't) you need to get it certified, which probably costs as much as paying someone to do it for you.

Unless you can convincingly argue that you did it back before Part P came in (old colour wiring may help).  Or don't think anyone's going to notice anyway.


If there's Economy 7, be sure that any immersion heater feed is actually live when you need it to be (as well as having an adequate current rating, obviously).  Drilling through the wall to intercept a ring main at a socket (via an appropriate fused spur) may not be a bad option, in terms of minimised disruption.

Tiling though, that's voodoo that is.

[andrewc]

Sure you can.  But unless it's a trivial replacement (this isn't) you need to get it certified, which probably costs as much as paying someone to do it for you.

Unless you can convincingly argue that you did it back before Part P came in (old colour wiring may help).  Or don't think anyone's going to notice anyway.


If there's Economy 7, be sure that any immersion heater feed is actually live when you need it to be (as well as having an adequate current rating, obviously).  Drilling through the wall to intercept a ring main at a socket (via an appropriate fused spur) may not be a bad option, in terms of minimised disruption.

Tiling though, that's voodoo that is.

Mounting it on the wall behind the door and drilling through to the mains spur is probably the simplest option.  It's probably the only feasible place for it anyway.

[fred the great]

If the cubicle is so small surely a small warm air heater with a time switch is a quick solution. No leccies, no certifications and no mess.

[Canardly]

Sorry to say I support the towel rail solution. There are incidentally some spiffing new night storage heater solutions out there which are HUGELY better that what has gone before.

[rogerzilla]

IME storage heaters are usually on a radial circuit EACH, so you may be looking for a spare fuseway in the consumer unit (and definitely an electrician to stay legit, since it will be a complete new circuit).

I once had a house that had been built with storage heaters but had had gas c/h installed later.  There was a huge row of blue fuses (can't remember if they were 16A or 20A) that were now connected to single sockets where the heaters used to be.  Could have been nasty if someone had pulled the 30A upstairs power circuit fuse to work on the sockets, not realising that they weren't all on the ring 

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

We have a simple cheapo French radiant heater stuck to the wall.  It's perfectly fine for bathroom warming and is bathroom rated (IP24*).  As we left the place empty over winter it was left on frost setting which is a useful feature to prevent burst pipes.  Unfortunately I don't know if there is a UK equivalent.

We do have an electric towel rail as well but it's not as good for room-warming quickly.


*IP24   =    touch by fingers (>12mm)    water spray from any direction