Radiator heat soak on oil fired heating system + shower q?

Hi guys,

We currently have a radiator in the bathroom that ive been told is used as a heat soak on our Oil fired central heating system.

It heats up when we have the central heating on, and also when we have the water heating on.
Ive tried runningone at a time, and both methods cause this radiator to heat up. (Not really a problem) But....

I want to replace the radiator with a towel warmer/radiator, will i be ok doing this?

The pipework to the current rediator is 1inch pipe under the floorboards, that converts to 15mm on the rises to the current radiator, obviosly the new towel heater/rad will more than likley be a different width, so will need to adjust... Im thinking of just cutting back the 1inch pipe and then running new pipe work.... whats best way to convert from 1 inch to 15mm?

For the first time i used plastic pipe and push/twist connectors downstairs.... could i use the same method, or shall i stick with good old copper solder fittings?


Second bit of advice needed on a shower unit... thinking about adding a standard mixer shower... can anyone see any problems i might come across? ie we have a cold tank in the loft, and a hot storage heater (cylinder) in the airing cupboard in the bathroom.

Changing it to a towel rail should be o/k. If there's TRV's on all the other rads dont fit one to the towel rail. if u have other rads with out a trv on then u can fit one on the towel rail. As for the shower invest in a good quality low pressure mixer Aqualisa/Mira cos wihout a booster pump cheap shower valves can be a bit lame.

anyone know, as this is a heat soak radiator, will our heating system still work if i just temp turn it off? just while im removing old rad, and fitting new one.... oh and while i get the tileing one too, so might be a few days....

It shouldn't be a problem. Just check the boiler thermostat does control the boiler. If it does, there's definitely no problem.

Im assuming the boiler stat, is the small dial on the front of the hot water tank? ie if i turn it down the heating cuts out???