Electric storage heater in bathroom

Builderfromhell

I'm renovating and converting a premises and the room which will be the new bathroom already has an electric storage heater in it.
I wonder if I would be in compliance with current regulations and/or good practice to leave the electric storage heater in bathroom and put the WC beside it.
There is no Gas or oil heating system with radiators and normally I would fit a wall mounted electric fan heater.

eoghan.geraghty

When you say bathroom, do you mean there is a bath or shower basin in the room?
Some people incorrectly call a " w/c " a " bathroom ". In a " w/c " you have no problem electrically, although you need a certain amount of room clear around the w/c itself to meet building regs.
In a bathroom proper, your storage heater and all it's controls would need to be more than 3 metres away from the edge of the bath or shower basin.

Personally, I would remove it even if you had the 3 metres catered for, and fit the usual fan heater you described in zone 3, ie not directly above the bath/ basin and more than 600mm away from the edge.

Good luck with it.

mazthespark

Certainly wouldnt advise it unless the houseowner enjoys electricuction! would definitely recommend installing a wall mounted fan heater instead. could probably use the storage heater supply to power the heater if u move the switch up to ceiling level also. but changes mite need to be made at fuse board also to accomodate this. Not certain of regs but pretty sure nothing in a bathroom apart from shaver lights, ceiling lights, isolating traffos showers and that kind of thing and especially not close to water or sinks.

Dotsie~tmp

Class I equipment is allowed in Zone 3 with switches put no less than 2.25m (the spur?). Appliances with heating element should have IP rating of at least 2X. I am unsure if a storage heater is Class I. I wouldn't do it anyway and go with a fan heater.

Main problem I would see is people putting cloths and towels on the heater. This is a no no! Look up what zones mean.

davelerave

I'm not great on regs. but i assume in the zones a heater would need 'rcd protection'.That would prob rule out storage heating .A class1 heater in a bathroom zone would prob be connected to the bathroom 'equipotential bonding' sytem.

embracingLife

really what do you need a storage heater in a bathroom-unless its a huge room?! Then underfloor heating is safer but thats another days work.

Only a radiator fed from a central heating would be acceptable. Any other type of electric heater would be a wall mounted fan heater.

You can quote regs all day but why did you bother coming on here?

bathroomrepairs

aaa

bathroomrepairs

you will have to fit a wall mounted one to comply in Ireland
it will also be a cheaper option