Warm dry towels - controlling an electric towel rail.

[anthony james]

We've had a gert big ladder towel rail installed in our bathroom with an electric element in addition to the central heating connection so that we could have dry towels in Summer when the CH was off.

After looking at various timeswitches I think I've found the perfect solution and thought it worth sharing.

The electric element is now connected to a 0-2 hour delay timer from TLC. This is switched by an architrave press switch

out of shower, use towels, hang on rail, press button. Rail heats up for an hour or so (I haven't fine tuned the timing yet) and the towels are dry for the next time you want to use them. Cheaper than a timer and used only when needed so efficient. Towels stay dry and dont get smelly so need washing less often.

[Chris J Dixon]

I hope you have studied the electrical zones if that is a 240V switch you are contemplating fitting.

Chris

[ARWadsworth]

I used a

on the last one I installed.

Adam

[anthony james]

That would have been even better and just goes to show i should have asked first. I made a decision to ignore the electrical regs and put the switch in - it can be taken out of circuit in future and there's a fused spur outside the shower room.

Talking to our electrician the UK regs now seem so over the top as to be laughable - as i understand it you cant even have a ring main running THROUGH a bathroom so each of the electrical devices in a bathroom now needs to have a fused spur outside the room with only the load wire running to the appliance.

I was in Switzerland recently. It's a pretty tightly regulated society with very high construction standards and while we were there we visited some friends in a stunning high-spec 'executive' apartment in Zurich. The fuse box for the apartment was in the shower room wall with a metal door and the lightswitch was inside the room. I dont think the bathroom light switches had an integrated socket (most of the others did) but i'm sure there were a couple of sockets in the bathroom anyway.

In the UK I can have a plug socket as close as i want to the sink in the kitchen where i'm washing up but cant have a light switch in the same room as a toilet? If you're stupid enough to dry your hair in the bath you're probably stupid enough to run an extension lead from the next room to do it.

[Dave Stanton]

Where in the regs does it say that ?. Whats a pull switch then ?

Dave

[ARWadsworth]

Look at

[chris French]

In message , Dave Stanton writes

And anyway, you can have a wall switch in a room with a toilet surely?

It's when the room contains a bath/shower that it might be a no-no.