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Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Electrically heated towel rail/radiator installation
On 11/03/2020 09:11, wrote:
On Wednesday, 11 March 2020 07:58:09 UTC, Grumps wrote:
On 11/03/2020 03:19, Steve Walker wrote:
On 10/03/2020 18:14, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
I'd have thought it should have some kind of thermostat, surely? Can
you not
set it so it has a lower temperature than would cause burns?
Â* Brian
Is it likely to get any hotter than the 80°C of many traditional
radiators or wet towel rails?
SteveW
Well that's what I thought too.
The whole story is...
The bathroom currently has a smallish towel radiator that is part of the
central heating system (combi boiler). It is mounted far closer to the
floor than 600mm, and the pipes run vertically from the floor directly
to the rad.
Obviously, in summer when the heating is not on, then the towel rad will
not get hot.
I know I can convert this rad to operation with an electrical element
too (a little plumbing I don't fancy doing), but I don't want to get
into a situation where the element fails and I have to remove the
plumbed-in rad just to change said element. Changing an element on an
all-electric rad is simpler.
So, for simplicity, I was just going to remove current plumbed-in rad
and cap off the pipes, and then install this electric one.
The house is going to be a rental property v.soon.
I'm not sure why you can't fit an element after closing the 2 valves on the current towel rail.
I'm not aware of any wiring regs reason to not have a low towel rail, but the item should be suitable for the task & the mfr says it isn't, though why I'm not clear. There is also the safety assesment, but I'm not sure why that would flag a hazard in this case.
We have elements in the rads in our bathrooms for when the CH isn't on,
ie in the summer etc. They are very effective. I just close of one of
the 'valves' on each rad, leaving the other one (the 'flow control') as
normal to allow for expansion etc.
The rads are towel rail style but, while the elements get them quite
hot, not enough to burn you.
We used to have an all electric towel rail (as well as the normal rad)
in the family bathroom. I think it was about 60W. It was used in the
summer etc. I don't recall it getting hot enough to burn you.
We have a dinky control, from Screwfix, on ours which is both a timer
and can also control the level but isn't actually thermostatic- it lacks
feedback.
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