Heated Towel Rail Query

[old wrinkly]

Hope someone can shed some light on the following,

At the moment I have a 600 x 1450 flat white towel rail in my en-suite with 19mm tubes. The towel rail has bars placed as follows reading from top to bottom 2-3-13-3-14. A friend has said he thinks it is probably rated at 1kW. It also has an electric element although this is hardly ever used.

The en-suite is H 2.4m W 1.5m L 3.0m, it is tiled on all walls and the floor and has two outside walls. There a 650x1000mm A rated UPVC window and it has an open aspect to fields on the window side.

During the last two cold winters the towel rail has struggled to heat the room effectively, the maximum temperature reached being 19C although most days it was slightly lower than this. I should mention that the room is the furthest away from my boiler and therefore takes time to get to it's full working temperature.

I have been thinking of fitting a small radiator in the room to boost the heat during cold weather but after some browsing have begun to wonder if fitting a replacement towel rail (curved) with 22mm tubes would give sufficient heat boost to get the room up to the normal suggested temperature for a bathroom of 21C or higher. This would be a much cheaper option.

I can't go for anything wider but could just about fit a slightly higher unit.

I have searched without success to find a way of working out how much heat my current towel rail produces.

I have seen some towel rails where the actual rail(s) for holding the towels is curved away from the main body and this would be my ideal however a standard curved towel rail would be OK.

Any advice much appreciated.

 

[moggridgeplumbing]

Your be luck that the towel rail gives 1kw. Towel rails don't give a lot of heat.

Try www.radcalcs.com and put your details in for output required. Then look around for towel rail/rad to meet your needs.

 

[old wrinkly]

Thanks for the reply.

Couldn't use the link you gave as it doesn't give an option for bathroom.

However I have used a couple of others, including the Myson site and that gives a requirement of 720watts or 2477Btu.

As I assume these figures are for a standard radiator and as a towel rail produces less heat is there a factor I need to multiply this by which would give me what Btu I need for a towel rail.

my other concern is not knowing my existing towel rail output how can I be sure any replacement will give more heat.

 

[moggridgeplumbing]

Towel rails as well radiator have an output in watts and BTU's. To convert watts into BTU's times it by 3.412

 

[Whitespirit66]

You could try a high output towel rad. These have flat rails with much greater surface area than other types. There are models on this link that are same width, and slightly taller than your existing one, that give 2700 BTU.

http://www.inspiredheating.co.uk/acatalog/QUINN_COMO_ANTHRACITE_DESIGNER_TOWEL_RADIATORS.html

http://www.prestigeradiators.co.uk/quinn-como-towel-radiator-12.html

 

[arasca]

Hope someone can shed some light on the following,

At the moment I have a 600 x 1450 flat white towel rail in my en-suite with 19mm tubes. The towel rail has bars placed as follows reading from top to bottom 2-3-13-3-14. A friend has said he thinks it is probably rated at 1kW. It also has an electric element although this is hardly ever used.

The en-suite is H 2.4m W 1.5m L 3.0m, it is tiled on all walls and the floor and has two outside walls. There a 650x1000mm A rated UPVC window and it has an open aspect to fields on the window side.

During the last two cold winters the towel rail has struggled to heat the room effectively, the maximum temperature reached being 19C although most days it was slightly lower than this. I should mention that the room is the furthest away from my boiler and therefore takes time to get to it's full working temperature.

I have been thinking of fitting a small radiator in the room to boost the heat during cold weather but after some browsing have begun to wonder if fitting a replacement towel rail (curved) with 22mm tubes would give sufficient heat boost to get the room up to the normal suggested temperature for a bathroom of 21C or higher. This would be a much cheaper option.

I can't go for anything wider but could just about fit a slightly higher unit.

I have searched without success to find a way of working out how much heat my current towel rail produces.

I have seen some towel rails where the actual rail(s) for holding the towels is curved away from the main body and this would be my ideal however a standard curved towel rail would be OK.

Any advice much appreciated.

Hi
Try this btu calculator this should help you out, also remember the towel rail purpose is to dry your towel and give warm environment, if you need better heat output you should go for stainless steel towel rail
Regards[/url]