Do heated towel rails use much electricity?

How much electricity do heated towel rails use?

The short answer is, not a lot. The majority of heated towel rails work very well to heat and dry your towels. To put it another way, they don’t require much electricity to do their work.

To give you a little more information, heated towel rails typically use 100 to 200 watts of electricity per hour. The heated towel rail’s size and design, among other things, can affect the difference in wattage.

A 200 watt heated towel rail would cost $1 per day to operate at, for example, 35 cents per kilowatt-hour. 68 if it was on all day. That corresponds roughly to turning on three 60 watt incandescent bulbs. And it costs between two and four percent less to heat and cool a room than a typical split system air conditioner will. Additionally, it costs a lot less than running your dryer after every use to dry your towels!

Additionally, it’s crucial to note that most homes don’t require their heated towel rails to be on all day. The daily cost will only be 28 cents if you use your heated towel rail for four hours per day, which is fairly typical.

To help you control when your unit is on and off, the majority of heated towel rails can be wired to a timer switch. Set it to begin warming up an hour or two prior to your shower if you typically take a shower in the morning so that your towel is warm. Set it to turn off after two hours so that your towel will be dry. Generally you can override timers when required. As the season changes and the temperatures rise and fall, you can easily update the timer settings, for instance.

What makes a towel rail efficient?

In the past, heated towel rails produced heat by hydronically heating the liquid inside the rails, but that method is rather ineffective today. These types of towel rails also require more maintenance. Most modern appliances use dry heating elements, which are significantly more efficient because they don’t lose as much heat to the space around them.

There are other ways to increase effectiveness and use less power in addition to making sure the heated towel rail you select has a timer and a dry heating element:

You probably know that aluminium is used widely in the aviation industry because of its lightness, but did you know that it’s also a great conductor of electricity. Heated towel rails made from aluminium are more efficient at transferring heat to your towels and your bathroom than any other type of rail. By the way, it looks pretty hot too!

Choose a heated towel rail that is the right size for your needs. A larger model may look great, but if you don’t need the space and are concerned about keeping power costs down, choose a smaller unit. Conversely, you don’t want a small unit that’s overloaded with towels as you’ll need to run it a lot longer to dry your towels.

Heated towel rails come in different styles and shapes, with some being more efficient than others. You’ll likely be familiar with the standard horizontal towel rails because they’re the most common. But you can also purchase vertical towel rails. While the power output of the vertical towel rails are similar to horizonal units, they are more efficient. This is because the heat loss from a vertical heated towel rail is much less. In fact, these units only have around a seven percent loss of heat, which is due to the heated air being projected onto the wall rather than on the floor.

Heated towel rails that have a bar and fin design (see s of the Gordon heated towel rail) are more efficient than the standard rod elements, as the heat loss is far less. In addition, they heat up faster than traditional towel rails, which means your towels will dry quicker. While it’s a matter of personal preference, we think the bar and fin heated towel rails also look better than their counterparts. It’s like having a functional and groovy art piece in your bathroom!

Heated towel rails were previously either electric or connected to your home’s central heating water supply. Both of these methods have disadvantages. In the summer, when the towel rail may be the only heating source you want to use, central heating rails depend on the rest of your central heating system being operational. This can be somewhat mitigated by lowering the temperature of your radiators, but it still requires your boiler to work harder than necessary to provide hot water to your system. Your boiler uses more natural gas or oil because it has to operate for longer periods of time to provide hot water, which will inevitably increase your heating costs.

You probably already know what a heated towel rail can do for you. A heated rail keeps your bathroom warm while also heating and drying your towels, combining a radiator and towel rail. When it’s cold outside, it might take days for towels to dry, but with their help, you can step out of the shower and into a warm towel right away. There has always been some hesitation about installing them due to their energy consumption despite their obvious benefits.

Similar to other electric heaters, electric heated towel rails are turned on and off by flipping a switch. Due to the power requirements of the heated element inside, these rails prevent the need to turn on the rest of your central heating, but they can be expensive to operate. They basically perform similar functions to a kettle, but with less immediate power consumption. While an electric heated towel rail is much more flexible for turning on and off whenever you need it, it would cost more to operate for the same amount of time than a rail that is a part of your central heating. In homes with solar panels or wind turbines already installed, the cost of operating an electric towel rail can be somewhat offset. This makes them a good option for homes with these resources already available.

Fortunately, a lot of contemporary towel rails combine the advantages of both types while eliminating their drawbacks. Dual fuel rails can be heated by your central heating system and powered by electricity. When your central heating is on, they get hot water just like any other radiator in your home, so it can warm your bathroom according to your schedule. They come in very handy during the winter because you can program them to turn on when you take a bath or to simply reduce the temperature in your bathroom throughout the day. They can also perform the same function as an electric towel rail by heating water that is stored inside when the electrical supply is turned on. Your heated towel rail can be used as an additional source of central heating in the winter and whenever necessary in the summer by providing both of these options. Due to the dual fuel heated towel rails’ increased adaptability, most homeowners will be able to reduce their heating costs while still enjoying warm towels (and a warm bathroom) throughout the year. Dual fuel rails can benefit from the same environmentally friendly electricity generation as other electric rails, such as from wind turbines and solar panels, when you do need to use the electric option on your rail. The most practical choice for any home with conventional central heating is a dual fuel rail, which comes at a small premium.

Jeeves Heated Towel Rails – Features & Benefits