Connections to electric towel rail heater

Jul 28, 2006 8 Replies
I

Please can someone provide a view as to the current preferred means of connecting power to the heating lement in a towel rail summer use only



- (heated from CH in winter).



Rail is in a smallish shower room in Zone 3.



Present intention is as follows:



Supply will be a spur of a ring.



to a switch by the door outside in the coridor. (point A)



then to a connection uint near the towel rail (point B)



then flexible heat resisting (immersion heater type) cable to the heating lement.



Help is needed as the optimum for pounts A & B; thoughts are:



At point A: double pole fused switch with red indicator light.



Point B a plain unfused connection unit.



Any views on above configuration gratefully received.



Views on desirability of other options are most welcome; eg using a fused connection unit near the rail and/or putting the red indicator light near the rail.



Oh, and while I'm about it I'll mention Part P. That saves everyone the effort ;-)



TIA



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F

Easy - red to red, black to black, green to the pipes, and blue to f*ck.

Oops sorry - the colours have changed!

:-)

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A

Nothing wrong with your present intention but remember that the heater needs to be supplementary bonded.

Adam

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J

Which can be done to the earth wire in the FCU, without any need for additional bonding wires or clamps etc on the rad.

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A

A switched FCU with flex outlet (with or without neon indicator) is perfectly allowable in Zone 3 and in my view preferable since the purpose of the switch is immediately obvious and the point of isolation is nearer the appliance.

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C

You made no mention of an RCD. At some point (possibly at the consumer unit) you should have a 30mA RCD.

These are called "flex outlets".

Christian.

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D

I would also have a switch outside with a neon. Shows if it's on rather more easily.

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A

Or if you want to spent a little more then

fed from a 3 amp fused spur will stop the heater been left by accident.

Adam

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I

//snip//

many thanks for the comments & suggestions.

I like Adam's solution best - put the timer outside & a neon switch-fused connection unit beside the rail. That way the timer can be set to warm towels up ahead of a shower with least effort.

also thanks to Christian for his note about the need for RCD - you can't just hook these units up to a lighting circuit which SFAIUI is sometimes done. Was trying to be fully explicit about the intended circuit but missed that one, though the ring supply is on an RCD.

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