Undertile electric heating... On walls?

[Seri]

I'm about to start with revamping the bathroom and am going to be putting i= n undertile electric heating.=20

The bathroom has three exterior walls, and although I've had thermal board = put up before being plastered it still gets quite cold in winter so I want = to make sure the heating system can make it nice and toastie.

This issue I have is that the floor space in the bathroom is limited, so, I= was wondering if there's any issue with putting the loose wire type heatin= g system on the walls as well before tiling them? I was only considering go= ing up to about 2.5 feet from the ground.

Any reason why this is a bad idea? I can't find anything on google about it= ...

Thanks

[David WE Roberts]

The bathroom has three exterior walls, and although I've had thermal board put up before being plastered it still gets quite cold in winter so I want to make sure the heating system can make it nice and toastie.

This issue I have is that the floor space in the bathroom is limited, so, I was wondering if there's any issue with putting the loose wire type heating system on the walls as well before tiling them? I was only considering going up to about 2.5 feet from the ground.

Any reason why this is a bad idea? I can't find anything on google about it...

**********************

Possibly contravenes electrical regulations about only running wires in certain well known places?

[Andy Burns]

Certainly sounds unconventional, have you estimated the cost per day to run it?

Does underfloor itself count as a safe zone? Isn't the heating wire over-wound by two layers of CPC, does that count for the purposes of BS8436? somehow I doubt it ...

[harryagain]

The bathroom has three exterior walls, and although I've had thermal board put up before being plastered it still gets quite cold in winter so I want to make sure the heating system can make it nice and toastie.

This issue I have is that the floor space in the bathroom is limited, so, I was wondering if there's any issue with putting the loose wire type heating system on the walls as well before tiling them? I was only considering going up to about 2.5 feet from the ground.

Any reason why this is a bad idea? I can't find anything on google about it...

Thanks

Underfloor heating is best suited to rooms in continuous occupation. You're probably better off with some sort of radiant heater.

[NT]

in undertile electric heating.

d put up before being plastered it still gets quite cold in winter so I wan= t to make sure the heating system can make it nice and toastie.

I was wondering if there's any issue with putting the loose wire type heat= ing system on the walls as well before tiling them? I was only considering = going up to about 2.5 feet from the ground.

Theres nothing about having it on a tiled wall that's any worse than having it in a tiled floor, so yes it would work. TBH though its usually better to spend the money on insulation so you dont need more heat. Is cavity filling an option? (its diyable) The other thing is that if you'r heating the wall up, you'll lose more heat, as happens with UFH, so just like UFH you should have some pretty thick insulation in place. Is there really no cheaper heating source there than electricity?

NT

[js.b1]

Electric underfloor heating is rarely a viable due to small free space in a bathroom :-)

#1 - Insulate the walls to 40-60mm Marmox (there are cheaper clones). The transformation is simply enormous - because instead of trying to heat the walls & tiles you only need heat the air in the small room, which is must faster & much easier. Internal insulation has a *very* substantial effect.

#2 - Avoid tiling on the floor, consider a warmer wet room vinyl surface like Alto Marine (it is not expensive).

If heating by electric... Set the towel rail element to provide a low background temperature, which is boosted on demand. This can be done manually by a 600 Watt MEG element on a 1200x550 WHITE towel rail; you set it to 30-37.5-45oC for most of the time and only push the buttons to make it run 60oC for the periods when it is very cold.

If heating by water... Fit a double radiator or such like to boost performance.

HOWEVER, a bathroom conversion from "no insulation to 40mm Marmox" needs very little heating. As you put thick marmox up you suddenly... become aware... the cold is going... and you are getting piggin hot... even when you were shivering before with freezing brickwork in front of you. Just from your body heat. Quite surreal and catches you out when plastering or tiling because things... suddenly... begin to go off very very quickly if thermally activated :-)

The vinyl wet room systems are superior to tiling - you can get non- slip tiles, but vinyl feels warmer and done properly it is the solution of choice from hotels to NHS to disabled. Forget underfloor heating, insulate heavily + towel rail or proper radiator.

[Seri]

JS, thanks for the really helpful reply, it's much appreciated.

The bathroom has just been plastered, thermal plasterboard was put on all the exterior walls first and it has made a heck of a difference.

Why specifically a white heated towel warmer over a chrome > Electric underfloor heating is rarely a viable due to small free space

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Call me a luddite, but I am not keen on putting anything behind or under tiles; if it goes wrong it's going to be expensive and messy to get at.

I quite like the Glen-Dimplex downflow fan heaters for bathrooms; a little noisy perhaps but they push quite a lot of warm air out fairly fast and have a thermostatic cut-out which stops them once the room temp has been raised. They're easy to fit, and easy to get at if there's a problem with them. They make air circulate in the room which is good for ventilation, and drying the room afer a shower (I do have a decent fan as well) and if someone is having sickness/diaorrhea in the middle of the night and has a fit of the shivers the heater can help a lot. That's especially true if the heater is sited close to the loo.

There is one issue with them - the pull-cord fastens inside the heater to a plastic rocking lever. When the end with the cord is pulled down the other end of the rocker moves up and presses against a microswitch. The amount of travel required is small. I have found my aged mother can't understand that pulling hard on the cord isn't needed, so - so far - she's managed to break two of the plastic levers.

Mum thinks it's a design fault though I'm less sure - if the lever didn't break then all that pulling could break the switch off the PCB or even break the PCB... Part of mum's problem is psychological - the heater comes with a cord with a tiny lightweight plastic blob on the end, but she's changed it to a heavy metal teardrop which looks as if it will need a strong pull. It also means the teardrop's weight is permanently holding the microswitch end of the plastic lever against the microswitch which reduces the needed travel even more.

She has another of these heaters in a utility room. There, since the pullcord from the heater would have been in an inconvenient place I put a separate much more robust ceiling-mounted pull switch in near the door, and that's surviving just fine.