I need to boost the heat in our bathroom because our forced air heating system is set to 65-68 degF. The heater needs to run on 120V, so 1.5kW is the limit.
Am i better off with an infrared heater such as this one:
Any suggestions/experiences appreciated.
Perhaps a large towel heater.
there are also floor heaters that go between concrete board and tile, if you were thinking of retiling...
warm feet helps a lot
when single i kept the house under 60 to save energy.
my simple solution , turn shower on in bathroom set hot....close bathroom door, bathroom now heats up fast:)
i would take my clothes off and drop them into the hamper, then return to nice warm bathroom
Do you want to leave the heater running full time, as in you want the bathroom to always be warmer than the rest of the house, or do you want to use it for when you're taking a bath or shower?
For me, it is the latter, so a little wall mounted fan heater heats
*quickly* and distributes the heat for the best results.Jon
I like radiant heat. Heat lamps can also be used in proper receptacles.
Greg
Thanks all for the suggestions.
I only need the extra heat when using the shower or tub. There is already a
250W heat lamp, but it is useless because the ceiling is higher than normal.I'm leaning towards the 1500W ceiling-mounted infrared heater, for several reasons:
(1, 2 and 3 apply because infrared heaters mostly heat objects, not air)
On the other hand, I'm guessing:
Time for some experiments!
do you keep the fan on when you are trying to stay warm?
maybe try turning it off?
Mark
I had heat lamps and in a current remodel replaced them with a combo fan, light, heater. I do like the new unit and while it has not been too cold on testing it did heat the room quickly.
In my previous house, in the Chicago area, I had a wall mounted heater in one bath (tub) and a vanity kick plate mounted heater in the other (shower). Vanity kick plate unit was almost identical to this one:
I agree with your analysis. My experience with infrared is that they are good for an AREA of the bathroom, say outside the shower. If you sink happens to be nearby, then you'll get benefit there too. So, I think the critical part is where you need the heat and if the bathroom is layed out in such a way that one IR can do it.
Go to Costco and look at the Presto dish. Just walking by one that was on at Costco made me grab one. Inexpensive, too. 110v, and throws heat across the room with no fan. An amazing heater for wherever.
Steve
If you have a dryer in the bathroom, get a device called "more heat". It goes in the exhaust line from the dryer and can be set to deflect dryer heat into the bathroom. I got mine at Home Depot.
---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire (44=EF=BF=BD 15' N - Elevation 1580')
For completeness, I should add another advantage of infrared heaters:
Yeah, but you switched from radiant heat to hot air heating.
With radiant heat you can even open the window (in winter) and still be toasty warm, whereas with the hot air -- that can be full on, window closed, and you still feel cold and, from breathing in that hot air, nauseaous.
Which is the nice thing about steam heat with clanking radiators -- too bad they seem to be out of style!
David
When I was a kid back in the 50's, my parent's house had gas heaters in the bathrooms.
Had to light them by hand. There'd be this blue flame along the bottom, and then above that, some kind of ceramic lattice parallel to the face of the tiled wall, with little half-or-a-third inch cones (same ceramic material) sticking out, that the heat from the gas flame would slowly heat to reddish hot -- and I think it was those things that radiated the heat out into the room.
That was a long time ago. I wonder if people still use those things today.
(Those were the days when children weren't so protected from everything. Concrete in playgrounds you could fall onto (better not!), no rubber-like play-GROUNDS anywhere, and, if you can believe it, all kids went out trick-or-treating by themselves -- no parent would ever even think of coming along!)
Hey -- back then, we even had something called "democracy"!
Not only that, but the constitution actually meant something!
Man, those were the days!
David
I bought one of those -- a "personal" heater -- put it across the room, and it will throw a hot spot only two or three feet wide.
One problem is that it's either on or off -- there's no way for it to run at say 300 watts. Yeah, you can turn the dial, ie an internal thermostat, and get an AVERAGE 300 watt usage, but at any given time it's either off or on at 100% (well over 1000 watts).
Anyway, I found that I could not use for myself because that beam of infared (from the electric coil being red hot, and then being focused by the curved dish, like in a reflecting telescope) heated the AIR in that narrow column of heat so much that the relative humidity within the beam went to like zero, which air dried out my nose so much that it hurt.
What I use it for now is in the garage on REALLY cold days, and point it at a pipe that goes down the wall, to keep the water in it from freezing and bursting the pipe (and causing a later flood).
-------
Now, don't get me wrong. I like a "personal" heater -- like an old Markel that workmen all used to use (still do?) -- turn it on low, when only the front bar (of coiled wire) turns on (red), with the back bar and its fan off -- it uses only
300 watts, and placed maybe a yard away keeps you toasty warm.------
Better yet is a personal fan -- one so designed that it throws out a NARROW COLUMN of air clear across the room, hitting you and maybe one other person. That's the wonder VORNADO (voronado?) fan, designed by ex propeller designers.
Man, is that wonderful -- you can put it on a table across the room, have it hit you in the face in bed, and have nothing between it and you could hit or trip over in the night.
Costco sells those too. About $50 this last summer. Get one or several -- you'll be glad you did!
David
I inherited some in my current house (120 yrs old).
The problem was that they had no pilots. You just lit the gas with a match; there was a little pop; and then the gas heated the ceramics you described. I lost one to a bathroom renovation (something about code -- who'd have thought! ) and the other I voluntarily moved to the living room fireplace where it sits unconnected as a conversation piece.
The modern unvented fire has a similar layout but with pilot and oxygen sensor. I have a couple of those.
I suppose every generation blames the following one so I will too: The result of all this cosseting of the children is that we've raised a bunch of wusses, afraid to do anything unless Mommy or the nanny state tells them to. And they've been trained well at least on the face of it. Happily the next generation (that's your grandkids) seem to have a little spirit left although whether they can overcome the feminists, the PC people, the chicken little-ers, etc. remains to be seen.
When we lived in Europe our bathrooms had heated tile floors.
That really is the ultimate. Cost prohibitive, I suppose, but it was heaven to get up on a subzero morning and have your bare feet touch that warm floor.
Of course it was on a timer. No way you'd waste heat on a bathroom nobody was using at night. But it came on at 0500 in time to be toasty for morning showers.
We used to have an in-wall electric space heater with fan in one bath and an under cabinet, kick plate mounted heater/fan in the other. We liked both, for nice toasty showers/baths. In the new house we have ceiling units like mentioned by the OP and find they are not as good as those mounted lower in the room (9' ceilings probably have something to do with it). It seems you don't feel the heat as much down where we reside ... on the floor. Also, I found that the low mounted electric heaters help dry off you body after a shower or bath; the ceiling one, not as good. Never tried an IR unit. Sounds like it might be worth a try for me. This winter we'll probably try a portable electric space heater on the floor .... the heater police will probably be breaking down my front door!
I love my Presto Heat Dish, available at Costco. When I walked by the one they had on demo, and felt how it put heat out to about ten feet, I bought one instantly. I really like this heater. If you have a Costco by you, just go and see one working and do what you think. It is light, 110v. and is just right for the bathroom. But, also, it is diferent than most heaters because you can point it where you want the heat to go.
Steve
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