[PaulB]

Our house is small so the downstairs cloakroom/loo is proportionately small and, for reasons best know to the previous owners, unheated and 50% of the walls are external.

I was thinking of a heated towel rail. There are electric ones and ones as part of the central heating. The CH pipes are probably less than 2m away under the hallway. The electric "fuse" board is in the same room.

Instinct says gas would be more to fit and cheaper to run, but will there actually be much in it?

Thoughts.....

[rikur_]

Heated towel rails are usually quite poor at heating a room. From memory need to be about 3 x the size of a radiator to give out the same heat output - they're just not as effective at convecting.

If you're not wedded to the towel rail idea, a small 200W electric convection heater will heat a typical clockroom quite happily. I'd be surprised if there was an ROI in extending the central heating to cover it.

[stevelup]

Personally, I would fit a 'wet' one hooked up to the central heating but also fit an electric element to it.

That way you can use it all year round should you wish, independent of whether the central heating is on, but also benefit from the lower running costs in winter because yes, gas is -way- cheaper than electric for heating purposes.

All that said, a towel radiator is a pretty poor way of heating a room. Perhaps consider underfloor heating. It's pretty easy to retrofit in a small room like that.

[JoeC]

Towel radiator fitted to the central heating works fine as the only heat source in our bathroom. The towel rail is quite big at about 1500mm high.

[Flyin'Dutch']

Our house is small so the downstairs cloakroom/loo is proportionately small and, for reasons best know to the previous owners, unheated and 50% of the walls are external.

I was thinking of a heated towel rail. There are electric ones and ones as part of the central heating. The CH pipes are probably less than 2m away under the hallway. The electric "fuse" board is in the same room.

Instinct says gas would be more to fit and cheaper to run, but will there actually be much in it?

Thoughts.....

What have you done so far?

[PeteSpencer]

A tall vertical ladder type towel rail connected to CH with programmable electric element for the summer months will be more than enough to heat your cloakroom and will be much cheaper than underfloor heating. Added advantage of a ‘ladder’ is that it’s ideal for drying off coats etc after a walk in the rain.

Here’s one we have in our ensuites probably smaller than your cloakroom: although we have underfloor heating it’s always turned right down as towel rail heats room to perfection.

Google ‘towelrads smart thermostats’

[PaulB]

Thoughts.....

What have you done so far?[/quote]

Learned that you can get towel rads with electric elements, that towel rads aren't very good at heating, and that underfloor heating may be an option.

In short, I started with 2 choices and now have about half a dozen!

[riverrock]

Piped towel rail with electric element for the summer makes sense for an ensuite, where you want to dry a towel every day no matter what the weather. For a Cloakroom, I wouldn't bother with duel fuel ( the electric bit).

[stevelup]

Dual fuel is still your best bet IMHO assuming it’s an ‘all year’ issue

[rikur_]

In short, I started with 2 choices and now have about half a dozen!

Did you expect anything less!
I think it depends which problems you are trying to solve.
Do you want warm towels and/or a warm room? Towel rails heat towels, but aren't great at heating rooms (albeit clearly if you get them big enough they will)
Is it important to have warm towels all year round? I see the point of dual fuel towel rails in a bathroom where you've got wet towels to dry - personally have never bothered for a cloakroom.
Will the cloakroom need heating when the rest of the house won't? (e.g. we have an auxiliary electric heater in our study so when we're working from home we don't heat the whole house)
Underfloor heating gives a nice general heat, and gets rid of cold tiled/laminated floors .... available as electric or plumbed .... but plumbed doesn't work well as an extension to a radiator system, as ideally an underfloor heated system is run with a lower water temperature than radiators. Not difficult to fit at the same time as a new floor, but potentially an unwanted hassle if e.g. already got a tiled floor.
How difficult will it be to get plumbing in place - e.g. suspended wooden floor with access = easy, concrete floor with tiled finish = hassle.
My in-laws have a short wide radiator in their cloakroom below the coat hooks, so you get nice warm coats for winter, and dries out wet coats. Just remember to remove the kids chocolate bar from your pocket before hanging up.

[PeteSpencer]

I would still go for dual fuel: with 50% external walls, no heating and CH piping and electric nearby you'd be daft not to.

I dunno if you do a lot of walking but wet coats are a pain and the system I've described solves this.

Plus: how many homes have you visited where the cloak room is freezing cold for visitors?

Sounds like yours is one.

Believe me a ladder towel rail 1-1.25m tall is more than enough to heat a small room.

And its programmable so its not blasting out all the time drying endless bath towels.....

Peter

[Rob P]

What temperature do you need a downstairs cloakroom to be?

An electric towel rail will lift the temperature sufficiently for visits for calls of nature. If however you intend sitting in there, lightly clothed, reading from your extensive 'library' of back numbers of FLYER for hours of peaceful solitude then you maybe require something a little more complex / expensive.

Rob P

[PaulB]

Heated towel rail it is then........

[stevelup]

Most heated towel rails are chrome plated. They corrode if you even look at them let alone leave damp towels on there.

So your next task is to find an affordable stainless steel one which is harder than you would think!

[Rob P]

Good point.

Our painted electric towel rail is about 12 years old and hasn't corroded.

Rob P