Dual fuel towel radiator

[Will]

Hi guys,

I'm in the process of install a new bathroom and have fitted a plumbed towel rad. with a manifold to allow me to also fit an electical element (150W).

The instructions that came with the element say that I should not run it at the same time as heat is being supplied on the wet side.

I have plumbed it from the primary circuit from the boiler (and it will also be acting as a bypass for the boiler over-run - replacing the current bypass through the HW cylinder).

How much should I worry about the element being on in the summer when we will probably run the HW program every other day, but would also have the element on the rest of the time to dry the towels. In the winter the element will be off.

Should I fit a time switch to ensure it's not running during the HW program, or is it OK to leave it on?

I suppose, thinking about it, that a time switch would be a good idea anyway to turn on for a few hours after AM showers and PM baths - rather than leaving it on 24/7 during the summer - but with the first nipper on the way there's no telling when warm, dry towels would be desirable.

Thanks,

Will

[ARWadworth]

Use a

to control the electrical side of things. You will be surprised how little you need it on to dry and warm towels. You certainly do not need to leave it on 24/7 during the summer months (if we get a summer).

Adam

[Roger Mills]

If your central heating programmer has a live output from one of its connections when the HW is *off* (most do) you could use this as the feed for your towel heater - prior to whatever manual switches or timers you plan to use. This would prevent the element from coming on when the HW system was running. It wouldn't prevent it coming on when just the CH was on, of course - but it would presumably be manually switched off at such times anyway.

Another possibility would be to power it through a normally-closed relay whose coil is paralleled with the CH pump - so that the element would be switched off whenever the pump is running or, in other words, whenever the primary circuit is being heated for either HW or CH or both. Whether or not that would satisfy the requirement, I don't really know - because it would allow the element to come on immediately after the pump had stopped, when the water in the towel rad could already be pretty hot.