Bathroom towel drying - wet radiator with electric heater elements - good/bad idea?

[readiescards]

So SWMBO insists on heated towel rails.  I've just seen you can get wet / water based towel rail radiators with optional extra built-in electric heater elements.

These could be a useful dump for excess summer time PV.

 

Are there any downsides to electric heater elements in wet towel rails?

 

I note the sales leaflet says the valves need to be left fully open which makes me think each towel rail needs to be on its own manifold circuit controlled by a thermostat - so in Spring/Autumn the left fully open valve does not take lots of heat from the space heating system when its not needed.

 

[ProDave]

Electric towel rails usually only have low power elements, so as a PV dump load are not that good.
 

[Barney12]

I fitted them in our last place. As @ProDave said they're only circa 400w so not much use as a PV dump.

That was a standard radiator based oiled fired heating system. We only used the electric element to dry the towels in the summer (when the heating was of) and had them connected to a timer/boost  switch that just heated the radiator for a predetermined time. One of these: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Water_Heating_Index/Immersion_Heater_Timers_2/index.html

This worked well for us as two of the bathrooms were not used that often. 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2016 by Barney12

[Nickfromwales]

12 hours ago, Barney12 said:

I fitted them in our last place. As @ProDave said they're only circa 400w so not much use as a PV dump.

That was a standard radiator based oiled fired heating system. We only used the electric element to dry the towels in the summer (when the heating was of) and had them connected to a timer/boost  switch that just heated the radiator for a predetermined time. One of these: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Water_Heating_Index/Immersion_Heater_Timers_2/index.html

This worked well for us as two of the bathrooms were not used that often. 

 

 

+1 on those electri saver units. I fit them when we do uvc's with a 20a switch paralleled as a master override .