Hi All,
Happy Christmas / Bah Humbug (delete as appropriate).
In the olden times, it was recommended to plumb the towel rail into the hot water circuit rather than the heating circuit.
What was the thinking behind this?
And is it necessary today?
TIA
Chris
Warm towels when you have a bath.
Electric element and the rad on with the CH? Done it at lots of places I have worked at. Usually just with a countdown timer.
And it's a Happy Christmas:-)
Not religious, not got young children, won't 'buy into' the whole commercial deal. No tree, cards, presents or special food ... or stress, but happy. [1]. ;-)
Yeah, my Mums old gravity system is like that.
I think the idea was that it not only dried any lightly damp towels (pre tumble dryers and when it's damp outside) but also provided the heat to the bathroom?
With better insulated houses and tumble dryers then probably not?
I wonder what percentage of people, (living as a long term couple especially) put a large towel in the washing machine then dry it
*every* time it's used, even after just a quick shower (rather than just hanging it up to dry and be re-used)? I mean, you don't generally use your hand towels only once do you?I mean, it's not going to be 'dirty' as you have just washed and if you have a quick dry down with a flannel first [2], not necessarily even that wet?
Cheers, T i m
[1] I needed a USB pen drive yesterday and picked one up from Argos. Luckily it wasn't too busy in there and the sales assistant commented on it being a last minute Xmas present? I said 'no, it's just because I need one myself now'. ;-) [2] A trick we learned when motorcycle or cycle camping and only having a travel towel each etc.p.s. We also went to Toolstation, a pet shop and Sainsbury's for 'everyday stuff' and four were reasonably quiet, as was the traffic (thank goodness). Roll on normality! ;-)
Yes well enjoying the rest from stuff, but apart from that a normal day really. When you cannot see, I guess the pretty stuff and cards of Christmas seem a wee bit pointless. Never let anyone tell you that being on your own and being lonely are the same thing either. Certainly you can be lonely when in a crowd of shoppers who seem to have nothing in common with you, just as easily as when on ones own, its probably a state of mind, not anything to do with other people. Brian
Have seen it done that way, on old CH systems, so that it acts as a bypass loop, if both HW and CH zone valves are shut. These days regs call for a bypass loop with an auto bypass valve in it where the pump might be running when all zone valves are closed eg. on pump over run.
Once you'd filled the bath, the hot water would need replenishing, so you had hot towels when you got out of the bath.
That's up to you. I re-plumbed mine on to the heating circuit.
Which is all it really is to millions of folk of course.
If you feel what you feel for others *anyway*, I'm not sure what some fairy lights or a card offer extra, certainly over a visit or phone call and chat? I would much rather forgo all that and really be there for someone in need or know they were there for me. We stick 20 quid in the Isabel Hospice box instead of all the cards we don't send and the environment is happier as well. ;-)
Oh, absolutely ... and the same for many elderly especially is they haven't embraced technology or had the opportunity to, helped by family members and so can make new friends that way. My Mrs plays Words with Friends and has made a few virtual friends as a result. My Mum who is nearly 90 keeps in touch with her extended family through her iPad and because she's hard of hearing, IM works very well for her.
One of the most saddening things is to hear from someone caring for a partner with dementia is that they miss having someone to talk to (where 'to' used to equal an rational conversation). You are with someone but they aren't often with you or it. ;-(
Cheers, T i m
It would get heated each time the cylinder is reheated - so that is likely to be after you have drawn off significant amounts of hot water, like filling a bath.
Some might also configure it as an "always open" path through the system to create a bypass.
Not often done. Dual fuel rails are probably more common.
Heat dump on old gravity feed systems.
It was plumbed in parallel to the hot water tank to prevent the H/W tank from boiling and spewing out boiling water (and steam) into the header tank.
My first house had a single pipe C/H system simply connected across the gravity feed pipes from the coal fired Parkray supposedly using the entire C/H as a heat dump but the single pipe system which had a manually switched circulation pump under the lounge floorboards was so useless the H/W tank used to pump steam into the loft space!
I ripped out the whole lot, put a thermostatic (hot water tank thermostat) on the flow pipe from the parkray and one on the H/W tank to automate the whole process so when the fire was lit the gravity flow (rising) pipe fire the circulation pump which initially heated the hot water tank and as soon as that reached the temp on the tank stat the 3 port valve would then divert all water through the Central heating.
It worked brilliantly but I still added a heat-dump radiator on the landing bypassing all valves etc just in case the valve, pump or t/stat failed so there was always a directly connected escape route for the hot water given that it was an un-switchable solid fuel source.
It's sometimes useful to warm the towels while the hot water is being heated - including in the summer when the central heating is off.
But I wouldn't want that as the only source of heating in the bathroom for two reasons:
1.Towel rails have a low heat output and are not a lot of use for space heating.The central heating system my parents installed in the 60s was a single pipe pumped system controlled by a room stat for the CH whilst the DHW was gravity feed relying on the boiler thermostat to control water temperature. I do believe the bathroom radiator was hooked into the DHW system.
Richard
That would make sense in that case, because the bathroom radiator would be hot whenever the boiler was running, unlike a fully pumped zoned system.
In message snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com, snipped-for-privacy@o2.co.uk writes
I think ideally a bathroom would have a radiator on the CH side and towel rail on the DHW side so that the towel rail still gets hot during the summer, providing a nice warm towel for drying, then drying the towel afterwards.
I fitted an electric towel rail to do this. ;-)
I would only replenish it the next time I needed a bath.
We have individual timer/stats per room, so we can always turn the valve off on the radiator and set the timer to a short period (probably starting at the same time as heating the water tank) to heat the towel rail without running the boiler just for that.
SteveW
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