Towel rail when rads off?

[seasickstevie]

Am I right in saying the way of feeding a towel rail from a combi when rads are not needed (summer) involves zone valves etc.?

Is this straight forward, or more complicated than it's worth?

 

[cantaloup63]

That's the way I did it when I did mine at home. An easier way is just to turn off all the other radiators over the summer months

 

[seasickstevie]

I guess that makes sense for the summer months, but I'd like a simpler method of control for mild spells and the like in spring & autumn, when one minute heating's needed, and the next day it's not.

I think I need to pursue the motorised valve method.

 

[cantaloup63]

The way I did it was to split the flow pipe near the combi and put a couple of zone valves* there, and ran an independent circuit up to the bathroom since the bathroom is geographically only a couple metres away from the boiler. The other valve operates the rest of the radiators. A honeywell ST9500C controls the two zones very nicely, and a room stat is incorporated for the main house rad circuit. In the bathroom itself, we have one tiny rad under the window with a TRV and a separate towel radiator with manual valves, so that it acts as a bypass in addition to the one inherent within the boiler.

The only thing I have never got round to doing is finding a suitable thermostat for the bathroom (could use a wireless one, but even here I struggled and gave up looking for one with a suitable IP rating)

(*Instead of two zone valves, you could probably do it with a three port valve)

 

[seasickstevie]

Thanks for that info cantaloup. Now that I know it's possible, I'll get a three-port valve and work on that basis.