Electric towel rail swap to underfloor...?

[Sully the Scarer]

Hi Folks,

We've moved into a house where each bathroom is fitted with an electric towel rail and hideous carpet... my plan was to remove the electric towel rail and switch to underfloor heating using the same connection point (which is in a good location) and then tile above.

Is it possible to do this? I'm aware I'll need someone to do the electric part for me as it's a bathroom, but it would be great if I can reuse the towel rail connections....

Ideally the main switch outside the bathroom I would switch to an underfloor heating controller - I guess this is possible?


Thanks in advance

Pictures of the electric connection (and horrific blue carpet) and the switch outside the bathroom which turns on/off the towel rail....

 

[flameport]

The existing connection can probably be used, however electric underfloor heating will not heat the room, and it won't warm or dry the towels either.

 

[Sully the Scarer]

Thanks for the fast response flameport!

The towel rail doesn't heat well either, so we won't miss It The room is heated by a radiator nearby, so it's purely underfloor for warm feet feeling on a cold morning.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Slippers are a great deal cheaper and a great deal more environmentally friendly. And hugely easier to deal with when they break down.

Or if replacing the floor is happening anyway, replace it with wood or bamboo and that will feel perfectly warm to bare feet.

 

[Sully the Scarer]

Thanks ban-all-sheds... our solar panels, battery storage and wind generation system mean our new house is basically off grid 95% of the time - so environmentally I'm pretty well suited thanks. I was hoping for electrical advice rather than eco advice, but thanks all the same.

 

[endecotp]

Do you plan to dry your towels by laying them on the floor ?

 

[Sully the Scarer]

Do you plan to dry your towels by laying them on the floor ?

No - just replace a completely useless towel rail with something more useful. The towels can dry on the radiator next to the bath...

 

[winston1]

Pictures of the electric connection (and horrific blue carpet) and the switch outside the bathroom which turns on/off the towel rail....

That looks like a switched FCU outside the bathroom feeding an unswitched FCU in the bathroom. is it?

 

[ericmark]

I made a mistake, we fitted electric underfloor heating in a wet room for my mother, main idea was to dry the floor quickly as she only has one leg and we did not want her to slip on the wet floor, secondary was to heat the room, it was a failure on many counts.

There are very few electric under floor heating systems that can be used in a bathroom, the chemical heater which is self regulating at least when I fitted it was not suitable for the wet room, so one needs two thermostats one for floor temperature and one for room temperature, these are normally combined into one unit, however we could not find a thermostat which could be mounted inside the wet room. Maybe there is one now, but it needs two sensors one in the floor and one measuring air temperature.

It did work, however of late started using again to be warm ready for carers at 8 am has to be switched on at 6 am it is so slow to heat up. Even then the floor is only warm, it takes another 2 hours before it has reached temperature. So in real terms it needs to be left on 24/7. In your case only a bath room, in my case once shower was switched on the floor quickly cooled, another hour to warm up again and dry the floor.

We also made an error going for sculptured tiles for more grip, this means in practice longer to dry. It feels warmer at home with a simple carpet than it does with underfloor heating and a tiled floor, we did not find any underfloor heating suitable for bathroom which will work with a carpet.

It was laid twice, the builder damaged it first time, the bend in the sensor pocket was too sharp and the sensor got stuck in the pocket and can't be renewed, as a result of latter we can't simply leave it on or it will over heat.

When it was first installed we found with the air the fan moved the wet room never got hot, without the towel rail (connected to central heating) the room would be unusable.

Liquid underfloor heating is auto limited to temperature, and my son has installed it and yes it does work, I will admit it was installed to sink the excess heat from the solid fuel cooker more than having warmth under foot, in the same way using electric underfloor heating to use power from solar panels may also work, but in the main it's useless. Learn from my error.

In Chester my closest city we have examples of underfloor heating installed by the Romans, however after the Romans left the UK it seems we stopped using it, now I know why, it's useless.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

No - just replace a completely useless towel rail with something more useful.

Sorry - I obviously misunderstood - I thought you said you were going to replace it with UFH.

 

[deadshort]

Hi Folks,

We've moved into a house where each bathroom is fitted with an electric towel rail and hideous carpet... my plan was to remove the electric towel rail and switch to underfloor heating using the same connection point

DS

 

[JohnW2]

Sorry - I obviously misunderstood - I thought you said you were going to replace it with UFH.

Sarcasm can sometimes be too subtle to be appreciated as such by the target audience!

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Aye.

 

[deadshort]

Sarcasm can sometimes be too subtle to be appreciated as such by the target audience!

Kind Regards, John

Happy New Year, John

DS

 

[JohnW2]

Happy New Year, John

Many thanks - and the very same to you.

Kind Regards, John