Efficiency
Busy Bathrooms
If that sounds like your bathroom, you’ll need to find a heating system which works efficiently over long periods of time. You’ll also benefit from a system which can be programmed, so that you can warm the bathroom in advance of those busy morning and evening sessions, and save energy by reducing the heat during the day when everyone’s out of the house.
Efficient Systems for Regular Use
As a general rule, the most efficient heating systems to use in bathrooms will be those that heat through radiation, rather than convection. Convection is a form of heat conduction where heat is transferred via the air. The air heats up as it passes through your heaters. This causes it to rise, circulating around the room, transferring heat to the room’s occupants. Radiation, meanwhile, heats objects and surfaces directly without heating the air, in the same way the sun warms the Earth across the vacuum of space. This is a more efficient process because it effectively “cuts out the middle man” in the heat transfer, and ensures you lose less heat through draughts and open windows. This is particularly advantageous in a bathroom, where warm air is constantly sucked out of the room by the extractor fan.
Many popular heating systems heat using a mixture of radiation and convection. Radiators and towel rails use both – whether they are electric or powered by your central heating. Their hot surfaces push out radiated heat, whilst the circulation of air around their heating elements spreads heat through convection. Although some of the hot air produced will be lost through the extractor fan, the constant supply of radiated heat will prevent the temperature dropping too low. Towel rails can be particularly useful in busy bathrooms because they can combat the damp held within soggy towels.
To take full advantage of the benefits of radiated heat, you might want to look at systems which heat purely through radiation: infrared heaters and underfloor heating. These systems push out radiated heat from the walls and floor respectively, but do not waste energy heating the air. Not only is this more efficient – it also offers a number of additional benefits that are particularly useful in busy bathrooms. Because radiation warms surfaces, moisture is less likely to condense on your walls if you use infrared panels, and will evaporate faster from your floors if you use underfloor heating. This helps keep damp at bay and makes your floors less treacherous – ideal if you’re older and less steady on your feet and you share a bathroom with splashy children. You can even go one step further with a heater designed to prevent condensation forming on your mirror. A mirror de-mister, or an infrared mirror panel used in place of a mirror, will keep the surface of the mirror warm, combating the daily inconvenience of a fogged-up mirror. This can be a great boon if you want to shave or put on make-up after another family member has taken a steamy shower. Radiant heat solutions work well in combination: an underfloor heating system beneath your tiles and an infrared panel on the wall makes a very efficient heating system for busy bathrooms.
Programmable Bathroom Heating
The most basic level of control commonly used in bathrooms is a timer. Heaters fitted with a timer will operate for a set time before switching off. The first person into the bathroom can activate the timer, which will keep the space heated for a set period before switching off. Whilst this is an effective way of preventing wasted energy, the obvious drawback is that the first person to use the bathroom has to face the cold.
Most people prefer a programmable heating system, especially if they know when their bathrooms are likely to be in use. You can set your heating to warm up in advance of busy periods and switch off in those periods where you don’t need heating. This provides the optimum balance between energy saved and comfort maintained. Programmable controls are always recommended if you’re thinking of using underfloor heating because this will give the system plenty of time to warm up before the start of the day.
Electric heating systems usually offer more control over your heating than gas central heating systems. This has helped make electric heating very popular in bathrooms because it’s easy to control your bathroom heating separately from the rest of house. This can be desirable if you want your bathroom at a higher temperature than the rest of your house, or you want to keep using your towel rail throughout the summer while the rest of your heating is switched off.