Electric towel warmers, how to control?

[crispy_wafer]

Please could someone point me in the right direction.

 

Upstairs bathroom and En suite will both have electric towel rails, and possibly yet to be decided UFH heating mats.  I'm thinking about time scheduling on/off's and manual override for set time periods (15/30/60 etc minutes) with a single interface control.

 

Apologies, this is all new to me, our old bungalow has none of this stuff in it, so what kind of products/manufacturers should I be looking at.  Not bothered about app control or cloud, but if Google or Alexa is part of the feature set then it's not a problem!

 

Many Thanks

Marek

[JohnMo]

Depending the make of either the radiator or the heating element, you should be able to get an external battery powered time thermostat.

[Conor]

Interested in this as well, we got three of the damn things, the elements are ment to be hardwired in to a fused spur and left on 24x7. Haha. 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Conor

[JohnMo]

I used a generic towel radiator designed for water system, but installed Terma One heating elements and have their  TTIR wireless controller. Just filled the radiator with some leftover car antifreeze and tap water.

 

Wiring is just as @Conor describes, but the controller switches on off by temperature and time window.

[crispy_wafer]

I picked up some heatmiser/grant stuff for the ASHP.  Be nice if there was something similar but for electrics...

 

So start with a time clock for multiple zones, into a control centre that fires an on or off signal to switch the electric to the device on or off...  How all that works in practical terms, and even if possible - no idea.  Surely, this has been done before, or is this a strict one radiator one control type of scenario - which means multiple faceplates.

[JohnMo]

11 minutes ago, crispy_wafer said:

time clock for multiple zone

Could you do that in the consumer unit with a timing circuit breaker or a smart one? Not sure how you would control temperature? My TTIR controller sits on the sill, so no faceplates or holes to worry about.

[Carrerahill]

2 hours ago, crispy_wafer said:

Please could someone point me in the right direction.

 

Upstairs bathroom and En suite will both have electric towel rails, and possibly yet to be decided UFH heating mats.  I'm thinking about time scheduling on/off's and manual override for set time periods (15/30/60 etc minutes) with a single interface control.

 

Apologies, this is all new to me, our old bungalow has none of this stuff in it, so what kind of products/manufacturers should I be looking at.  Not bothered about app control or cloud, but if Google or Alexa is part of the feature set then it's not a problem!

 

Many Thanks

Marek

Run a dedicated towel rail circuit to the pair of them and put them on a timer, immersion heater timers work well, or something a little more fancy, and just set a schedule, that is the simplest.

 

Or you might want to split the circuit, i.e. if one is in a infrequently used bathroom you might not want it on at all unless you have guests? In which cause schedule the main bathroom towel rail to suit your typical daily schedule and put the guest bathroom on a simple on/off switch which can be switched on while they visit etc.

 

I've also seen them linked to PIR sensors in the bedroom/hallway - the idea being that if people are about then the chances are they will use the bathroom at some point, that then automatically adjusts for when you are away for the weekend etc. 

 

 

[cwr]

I plan to use shelly relays for ours. A relatively cheap way to get each individually running of a timer.

[PNAmble]

We’ve used these.  
 

https://ukradiators.com/products/inow-chrome-heating-element-300w-thermostatic-wifi

They come in multiple power models and also both dual fuel and straight electric.  

 

Controlled via Tuya app,  WiFi connected without a hub.  We’ve integrated into Apple HomeKit using HomeBridge but they also would with HomeAssistant. 

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> I picked up some heatmiser/grant stuff for the ASHP.  Be nice if there was something similar but for electrics...

 

There is - and we use that to control towel rails etc.

[Russdl]

2 hours ago, cwr said:

I plan to use shelly relays for ours. A relatively cheap way to get each individually running of a timer.

+1 to the Shelly relays, that’s what we use for our electric towel rails, works a treat. 

[crispy_wafer]

On 26/10/2023 at 18:55, Alan Ambrose said:

>>> I picked up some heatmiser/grant stuff for the ASHP.  Be nice if there was something similar but for electrics...

 

There is - and we use that to control towel rails etc.

 

Thanks,

 

I discovered the neostat -e has switching capability to 16A which should be more than ample, so that's what I'll use.  It's a bit of a compromise in that I'll have 1 for each room that requires, rather than a single point, but in the grand scheme of things it's not a bitter pill to swallow!

[Alan Ambrose]

You can put them all on the same ‘profile’ in the app - so you can use only one schedule.