Cold bathroom

[silverous]

Hi,

We live in a 2 year old house, and the main bathroom is often very cold indeed. Rest of house fine, although this is one of 3 rooms with ceiling fan and had noticed draught coming through so in this room I've sealed up the fan but still a problem. Our neighbour has an identical house but has said they do not have the problem, the only difference is that their bathroom has wood fittings/cabinets whereas we have stone.

Who could help with this? Are there insulation/heating experts? A plumber came out and suggested we needed a higher BTU radiator but could it be other issues?

A few notes:

i) Travertine stone floor, and stone up to a granite top (stone where others might have cabinets, so a gap and then breeze block then outside - don't think any insulation in the gap beneath the granite top).
ii) Inset spotlights (so insulation in ceiling is gappy where it can't be close to light fittings)
iii) External walls on two sides.
iv) Reasonably large room with a single heated towel rail (approx 1800 BTU I suspect)
v) Windows are wood, double glazed, but suspect not particularly high quality - that said no obvious draught from them although near them the air is fairly cold.
vi) As above, fan which had previously had cold air dropping down through it has been sealed up (with plastic and tape)

Any suggestions? We were thinking of getting the floor replaced with underfloor heating and keeping the radiator...

Thanks

Paul

 

[ChrisR]

I've sealed up the fan

Not wise unless you're into mould.


Does your current radiator actually get and stay HOT when your other rads come on?

 

[silverous]

I've sealed up the fan

Not wise unless you're into mould.


Does your current radiator actually get and stay HOT when your other rads come on?

Hi, thanks for reply. RE: Mould, the bathroom is hardly used, but when it is its freezing. We've had sealed up fans before and not had an issue with mould, we tend to open windows. We didn't want to seal-up the fan ideally but could see no other way, it had already been changed for one with a mechanism supposed to stop draughts!

RE: Radiator, yes it comes and gets and stays hot but it is a reasonably sized bathroom and we think (and plumber suggested) it is about 1800 BTU but we need 2000odd (I think those numbers are correct, certainly quite a bit more than we have).

 

[ChrisR]

1800 to 2000 would make no noticeable difference.

You need to do a heat-loss sum for the room. WHat size is it, what size are the external walls and how big is the window, and is it double glazed?And what's above and below?

 

[silverous]

Thanks, it was more than that 1800 to 2000odd i.e. like 2500-2800 or something. It is quite a small radiator - we have the exact same size rad in our en-suite which is half the size.

If I post the dimensions in here can you help? It is double glazed, wooden windows. Had considered secondary glazing as mother in law reckons it is heat loss / cold getting in through window.

Below is our lounge, which is fine. Above is loft which as per above has sparse insulation due to the inset spotlights.

Thanks

Paul

 

[ChrisR]

WHat size is it, what size are the external walls and how big is the window?

 

[twgas]

i would suspect the 2000 mentioned by your plumber is watts not btus

 

[silverous]

Are there people out there who could come and take a look and tell us what best course of action would be? A surveyor? Or heating engineer of some kind?

Plumbers always seem to look at it as a plumbing issue - e.g. bigger radiator, but presumably that just masks the problem?

 

[mikej2005]

Based on the calculations I arrived at when redesigning my central heating system last year, I came to the conclusion that a medium-sized towel rail on it's own would not be sufficient to heat an average-sized bathroom.

I have a fairly small en-suite shower-room with two external walls and I've factored in a small radiator currently, with a view to adding a medium-sized towel rail to get the extra heat I require, when the en-suite gets replaced at a later stage.