Enough BTUs for towel rail?

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smallsteve1

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I’ve removed an old 600 x 400 single rad from a small ensuite (3 m²) and hoping to replace it with a towel rail and wonder whether the new towel rail i’ve purchased is going to be powerful enough.
Original rad spec’d at 1563 btus, but never had it turned up anywhere near maximum, but the towels were above it as opposed to on it. New towel rail kicks-out 1328, but will have only one towel on it.
One on-line checker came out a requirement of 1063 btus for my room and another quoted 400 btus x meterage which would amount to 1347 btus; they also stated to add 10% more if loading it up with towels, but i won’t be doing that.
I’m really limited on space / location and it’s difficult for me to go any larger. The only other option would be to abandon the towel rail altogether. Is it likely i’ll get away using the new rail?
 
Towel rails are exactly that, for heating towels, when it comes to heating spaces then unfortunately they aren't very useful at all. Small spaces are easier to heat and a towel rail may suffice but compared to the original convecting rad then a towel rail needs to be way oversized. Comparing outputs won't work as towel rails have little to no convection and work primarily by radiation, then when it's covered by a towel then there very little heat out into the space at all. So if you are close you will feel the heat but when it comes to heating the air space in the room then it will struggle

Any shop that says adding 10% to a towel rad to make up for towels is having a laugh.
 
I replaced the big chrome towel rails in our bathrooms with connector radiators and simple towel rails above simply because they did not warm the rooms enough.

However if your only option - presumably due to a redesign / refit of the room - is this rail then it will have to do.

(Assuming no other more conventional radiator can fit in the space the towel rail will occupy).
 
Madrab said:
towel rails have little to no convection and work primarily by radiation,
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...and they won't radiate much either, if they are chrome!

They are very good at conducting heat to towels though, and if your toilet is next to the rad in a small ensuite, watch out you don't get a burn on your bum - yes this is from experience! :eek: :D
 
Small bathroom like that be careful bending over with chrome rad you're ass could look like your sponsored by Adidas ;)
 
smallsteve1 said:
Original rad spec’d at 1563 btus, but never had it turned up anywhere near maximum.
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By that if you mean that it has a TRV and you have never set it at the highest setting, that doesn't mean the radiator never operated at its maximum capacity. When the heating first comes on, if the room temperature is below the setting on the TRV it will be fully open and the radiator would be operating at max capacity, then as the room gets to the set value on the TRV it will start to close and reduce the flow of water to the radiator.

Much will depend upon how well your ensuite is insulated, how warm you like it to be in there, and how much of the towel rail is covered by the towel. If only half of it is covered / insulated by a thick fluffy towel, it makes a big difference, I would estimate that you may lose around one third or more of the 1,328 Btu's.
 
stem said:
By that if you mean that it has a TRV and you have never set it at the highest setting, that doesn't mean the radiator never operated at its maximum capacity. When the heating first comes on, if the room temperature is below the setting on the TRV it will be fully open and the radiator would be operating at max capacity, then as the room gets to the set value on the TRV it will start to close and reduce the flow of water to the radiator.

Much will depend upon how well your ensuite is insulated, how warm you like it to be in there, and how much of the towel rail is covered by the towel. If only half of it is covered / insulated by a thick fluffy towel, it makes a big difference, I would estimate that you may lose around one third or more of the 1,328 Btu's.
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The house is not that old and it is quite a tiny space and hence a towel rail ‘may’ be OK. Difficult to correct matters if it isn’t though.
I guess that it is a tad misleading, comparing Btus against radiators and towel rails as they work differently, just to complicate things!
 
smallsteve1 said:
I guess that it is a tad misleading, comparing Btus against radiators and towel rails as they work differently, just to complicate things!
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You're not the only one, believe me. Just as misleading is the the online systems and companies selling these things who don't have a clue about how they work either but are happy to misinform to move their products.
 
Madrab said:
You're not the only one, believe me. Just as misleading is the the online systems and companies selling these things who don't have a clue about how they work either but are happy to misinform to move their products.
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The big con being which delta-value is used!
 
If you've never felt cold in there, during winter months then you can probably get away with a towel rail. I do many bathrooms that just have a towel rail in them and customers have been happy with it. I do ask them before just reusing a towel rail.
 
dilalio said:
If you've never felt cold in there, during winter months then you can probably get away with a towel rail. I do many bathrooms that just have a towel rail in them and customers have been happy with it. I do ask them before just reusing a towel rail.
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Useful to know that, thanks!

It’s obviously a subjective decision and so I think I will proceed with what I have already bought, but use external pipework rather than channel the walls. In this way, it will be easy to swap it out if I find the room is too cold.
 
smallsteve1 said:
Useful to know that, thanks!

It’s obviously a subjective decision and so I think I will proceed with what I have already bought, but use external pipework rather than channel the walls. In this way, it will be easy to swap it out if I find the room is too cold.
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That's a pragmatic way to approach it and sensible. Depending what you're doing with the bathroom, you could also add electric UFH.
 
dilalio said:
That's a pragmatic way to approach it and sensible. Depending what you're doing with the bathroom, you could also add electric UFH.
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Did originally think about that but the problem is that it raises the floor levels, which introduces a different set of problems.
 
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