Heating a small bathroom

[jim8flog]

Well, all I can say is that the towel rail gets hot all the way to the top, so I don't think it needs bleeding.
I did use a calculator and came up with about 1100 BTU for the room, but I have no idea what rating the towel rail has.

This bathroom is on the corner of the house, so two external walls. (We do have cavity wall insulation).
And it has an unusally large (115cm square) double glazed window, which could be losing a fair amount of heat.

Or perhaps we're just soft southern wimps and feel the cold

the BTU will depend on the design of the rad but a quick online search suggests somewhere around 1150 BTU.

Is it connected to the heating or the hot water system if the latter it may not be staying on long enough. Does it have a thermostatic valve and have you tried turning it to the max. Do you have good insulation above the bathroom (6"plus).


The calculator should take in to account window size.

 

[jim8flog]

One other thought

If it has a thermostatic valve try taking the thermostat adjusting part of the valve off the head (it simply unscrews) and use a pair of players to pull the actuator pin up to see if it is sticking in the same position.

 

[cliveb]

Is it connected to the heating or the hot water system if the latter it may not be staying on long enough. Does it have a thermostatic valve and have you tried turning it to the max. Do you have good insulation above the bathroom (6"plus).

It's on the central heating. We have a combi boiler, so there is no hot water circuit.
It doesn't have a thermostatic valve, and both lockshield valves are fully open.
We're in a bungalow, and the loft above has about 8" of insulation.

This thread is in danger of veering away from the original question. I don't have an issue with the towel rail - it works fine.
We'd just like a way to temporarily boost the warmth in winter when we're using the bathroom.
My first thought was a fan heater, but I'll look into IR panels as well.

 

[Whereditgo]

I'm not convinced an infrared heater is the way to go. They heat objects not the air, so you may not feel much benefit when stepping out of the shower.

 

[williamalex1]

I replaced the 1000 x 600 towel rail radiator as it didn't heat the bathroom enough in winter. Used a 600 x 600 double radiator with a thermostatic valve, night and day difference.

 

[need_my_wedge]

That was my original intention, but we can't fit a towel rail wider than 300mm in the en-suite. It already has a 300 x 1600 rail, and I can't find a bigger one that isn't too wide.

My understanding is that the towel radiators don’t heat well because they have a small surface area. That’s why I switched to a flat panel towel rail, there’s way more surface area to emit heat. It certainly seems to make a difference.

 

[rulefan]

It's on the central heating. We have a combi boiler, so there is no hot water circuit.
It doesn't have a thermostatic valve, and both lockshield valves are fully open.
We're in a bungalow, and the loft above has about 8" of insulation.

This thread is in danger of veering away from the original question. I don't have an issue with the towel rail - it works fine.
We'd just like a way to temporarily boost the warmth in winter when we're using the bathroom.
My first thought was a fan heater, but I'll look into IR panels as well.

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[cliveb]

Vertical Designer Radiators | Radiators | Screwfix

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Thanks for the pointer.
Have you read the customer reviews of these rads?
I know you can't put a lot of faith in online reviews, but the number of negative ones is sufficient to make me think twice.