How to heat an airing cupboard?

[ban-all-sheds]

Having had a combi boiler fitted, I no longer have a hot-water cylinder in the airing cupboard in the bathroom, and therefore nothing to warm the air in there.

Can anybody recommend a small, safe, electrical alternative? The cupboard, and an existing circuit supplying it (was for the immersion heater) are in Zone 3.

Volume of the cupboard is approx 1.1 cubic metres.

 

[breezer]

you could have a tubular heater, or why not put in a small radiator

 

[IanDB]

I had an airing cupboard installed in my house (was new but getting older) but then the builders relocated the hot water tank elsewhere - very useful! I installed a 50 watt tubular heater which works fine.

 

[masona]

Winterwarm Low Energy Bathroom Panel Heater
or
The tubular heater as mention above might be better as the heat rise from the floor.

 

[oilman]

If you still have some pipes going to the cupboard, use a radiator, otherwise you'll be paying for electricity when you could have used gas (or oil).

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I do still have pipes in the cupboard, thanks to a combination of my stupidity in not thinking about it and specifying what should be done in advance, and the Bodgit and Scarper plumber who did the minumum to get the new boiler in and working.

But they don't need to be there, and when the bathroom is replaced next year they'll be coming out, and a more sensible route installed.

Small tubular heater (50-60W?) looks like a good soln. Maybe I'll experiment with a lightbulb to see how much I should have...

 

[breezer]

lamps give off some heat, but only as a by-product, get a tubular heater and a stat (also tubular heaters dont break when you drop something on them or kick them by accident, lamps do)

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm sure I read somewhere that ordinary incandescent bulbs give off something like 80-90% of their consumption as heat.

I wouldn't dream of using a bulb as a permanent solution, just stick one in there for a day or so to see how warm it gets, as a rough sizing exercise, before buying a heater.

 

[oilman]

.....lamps give off some heat, but only as a by-product, .....

.....ncandescent bulbs give off something like 80-90% of their consumption as heat....

Technically all energy into a system will appear as heat. The only difference in an airing cupboard might be the black clothes MAY get slightly warmer than the white ones if the two are facing the light bulb, put the bulb inside a shielded opaque enclosure and power in = heat out. But as breezer says, they are not as robust as tubular heaters.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Robustness - as I said, it'd just be a sizing exercise - I don't want to buy a 70W heater to find that I really need 200W, or vice-versa.

Does anybody know where I can find a sizing calculator on the net, given room volume and design temperature rise?

 

[masona]

Properly a useless piece of information.....

We don't use our airing cupboard anymore,we have a dehumidifier in the utility room which dried the clothes 100%.Another advantage is,it produce warm air around the house.

 

[IanDB]

I love this. If you use any standard central heating room heat loss calculation (I found a really good one on the net a while back but forgot to note where it was ) you can find out the required heat input. If it comes out in BTU then multiply the answer by 0.293 to get watts. I did a very rough and ready calculation on your 1.1m cube (not knowing where it's located) and to keep everything as warm as toast requires 46 watts. Depends on how many times you open the door. However once it is filled up with stuff you may even find that 50 watts is too much! You'll probably find that 25 - 40 would be more than adequate. Cheers.

 

[DavidH]

What about a small section of electric UFCH.

Stick a few cheep floor tiles down and the warm air will rise and you wont need anything on the walls etc that might get in the way or damaged.