Electric Towel Rail

carwash_2006

I have been thinking about a heated towel rail before this winter arrives. Our bathroom is really badly insulated and we get terrible condensation on the cistern which is actually causing mold to grow on the wall behind it. I was thinking that a towel rail plumbed into the heating would be a good idea and would help to keep the room a bit warmer.

My mother (who is an architect) has mentioned that an electric one would be better as we could leave it on more than we would have the heating on, thus keeping the room warmer and reducing the condensation. My worry with this is would that not add hugely to our electricity bills, which we definitely couldn't afford at the moment. If anyone knows about how much the lowest voltage towel rail run fairly consistently would add to an electric bill I would really appreciate it.

meercat

carwash_2006 wrote: »

I have been thinking about a heated towel rail before this winter arrives. Our bathroom is really badly insulated and we get terrible condensation on the cistern which is actually causing mold to grow on the wall behind it. I was thinking that a towel rail plumbed into the heating would be a good idea and would help to keep the room a bit warmer.

My mother (who is an architect) has mentioned that an electric one would be better as we could leave it on more than we would have the heating on, thus keeping the room warmer and reducing the condensation. My worry with this is would that not add hugely to our electricity bills, which we definitely couldn't afford at the moment. If anyone knows about how much the lowest voltage towel rail run fairly consistently would add to an electric bill I would really appreciate it.

I wouldn't advise fitting an electric one. In my experience they are not designed to heat a room. Towel rail being the operative words here.
My advice is a blow fan heater or other suitable bathroom heater.

carwash_2006

It's not to heat the room as such, just keep it warmer at that end so the condensation doesn't develop. The intention would be to keep it on most of the time, so a bathroom heater would not be suitable at all.

DublinDilbert

As others have said not a good idea, you'd be better off spending the money on insulating your bathroom. A towel rail would make very little difference. But seeing as your question was about running costs, they seem to use about 130W of power (looking at B&Q ones).

So they would use 1KWH (eg €0.16) of electricity every 7.7hours (1000/130). Or 3 units per day (eg €0.48) if on all day long.

If your wondering how much heat is 130W, think of two 60W light bulbs, that's about what you'll get out of it.

Dardania

I agree with meercat & DublinDilbert - the towel rail probably isn't the solution to your problem - insulation, and proper ventilation are. Does the bathroom have an extract fan?

Installing active heating sounds like an M&E services solution to an architectural problem...