CH bathroom zone

[Stephen]

Hello,

I was wondering whether to put the bathroom rads on a separate CH zone, rather than connecting them to the upstairs zone. I'm thinking this way I could heat the towels in the summer without heating the bedrooms.

Is this a good idea? If so, how would I control the 2 port-valve? Normally I would use a thermostat but can you use thermostats in a bathroom? I'm thinking not because of (i) electrical requirements (unless outside zone 2 or wireless) and (ii) wouldn't the humidity be an issue?

Would you just run the circuit off a timer? Could I use TRVs or would TRVs switch off the rad when the room was warm but before the towels were warm?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Peter Andrews]

AIUI it's 'normal' to fit the bathroom radiator before any control valves (mine is) such that the bathroom rad gets hot whenever the boiler runs - it's often used as the boiler bypass. Therefore during the summer the towels dry when the boiler is heating the HW.

Peter

[Roger Mills]

Why not just take a feed from the flow pipe *before* the zone valves? This way, this rad will get hot whenever one or more zones - including HW - are receiving heat, and won't need any exta valves or stats.

[Trade Plumbing]

Hi there Stephen

I was wondering if you had considered the Dual Fuel option? It would be far simpler for you than trying to reconfigure the way your heating works. Most people want to shut their central heating off completely during the summer, as it's inefficient to keep it running, just for one radiator in your home.

I recommend that you consider one of the central-heated towel rails, with an electric element so that you can use the bathroom radiator during the summer months. Most of our central heated towel rails can be converted to Dual Fuel with a kit that we can send out. Here is an example of the kind of thing we mean:

this helps

[Roger Mills]

> Hope this helps

That's ok if you happen to like towel rads rather than *proper* rads - but bear in mind that, size for size, they only produce a fraction of the heat output of the real thing.

[David Hansen]

On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:12:49 +0000 someone who may be Stephen wrote this:-

If there is space it is wise to separate heating the bathroom from drying towels. A towel rail separate from the radiator allows towels to be dried all year round, without overheating the bathroom in summer.

It is worthwhile fitting an electric element to most towel rails. Whether it is best to use this or the heating system to warm up the towel rail in summer depends on the efficiency of the heating system. Many of these are very inefficient on low loads, but some are not.

There are splash resistant thermostats, for example but an "ordinary" one can often be fitted if it is in the right place. See the 17th Edition for guidance.

[Trade Plumbing]

That's true if you're thinking about the modern ladder towel rails. There are other towel rails that have a more traditional inset radiator, such as the british-made

has an output of over 3000BTUs.

In conventional radiator terms, to get such an output, you'd need to have a single panel 500 x 1100mm or a double panel 500 x 600mm.

There are timers and thermostatic controls available for this type of radiator.

Didn't really want to get too technical here, but I hope this reassures you that it's the simplest option.

[Steve Walker]

I have separate 2-port valves and timer/stats for every room (it really does give a flexible system!) I've had no problems with the bathroom stat in five years (and with three kids having baths and no extractor, the humidity is high!)

Safety wise, the stats are battery powered and I have them switching 12V relays supplied by an isolating transformer with earthed screen - as well as making the system safe for the bathroom, it also allows the use of alarm cable for neat installation in rooms that are already decorated.

Steve W