The choice of the type of heating for the bathroom is crucial for the comfort of the household. Which installation to opt for modern floor or traditional radiator? After all, both a warm floor and a hot radiator are solutions very useful in any bathroom. Many of us therefore opt for a mixed installation. How to skillfully combine these two heating systems in a small room? It doesn’t have to be difficult, as long as we approach the subject head-on. Heating for the bathroom can not be a decision by chance.
The bathroom is a special place in every home. We value privacy in it, we want to feel safe, cozy, and, above all, at ease. However, in addition to the design qualities we pay attention to when arranging a “home spa space”, we also want it to be functional and suitable for intimate circumstances – in the bathroom we often stay naked, barefoot, and regenerate our strength. That’s why it’s so important that we are simply warm.
Heating for the bathroom in a house with underfloor heating.
When choosing the ideal heating for the bathroom, we often want to be able to heat it additionally and use a ladder radiator as a convenient dryer for laundry. The underfloor, although it provides warmth at the feet, does not give us this possibility. How do we combine underfloor and radiator heating in the bathroom if our house is entirely based on underfloor heating?
The first way
The easiest way to do this is to connect a ladder radiator under the underfloor heating system, by creating an additional loop and connecting it to the floor manifold. This way seems to be the most intuitive and simple way to link the radiator and floor heating system in a small room. Unfortunately, as befits the simplest way, it is not ideal. The disadvantage of this solution is the consistently low radiator temperature, which is due to low supply temperatures.
Remember that underfloor heating is a low-temperature heating system. The floor temperature should not exceed 28ºC in living rooms and 35ºC in corridors, or just bathrooms. What is the conclusion from this? When the heating medium from the underfloor flows to the radiator, the radiator will be at most warm, if not lukewarm. So it won’t warm up the bathroom while bathing, and it won’t fulfill the role of a laundry dryer – which is, after all, what we care about. By the way, it is worth recalling that for this reason, underfloor heating will work as basic heating only in buildings with decent thermal insulation.
The second way
The second, more sensible solution is to install a heater to the radiator connected to the floor. However, let’s not do it anywhere! For safety reasons, the heater must be away from the sink, bathtub, bidet, etc. It is important to know, however, that when we run the heater, we must disconnect the radiator from the floor system. Otherwise, the heat produced by the heater will flow from the radiator to further parts of the installation. Figuratively speaking, it will “melt into the floor.” When you cut off the radiator from the floor installation, the heat will stay in the bathroom, in the ladder radiator, which is exactly where you want it to heat. With this solution, do not forget to reduce the excess pressure naturally occurring when heating the water. Therefore, do not close the second shut-off valve. Heating for the bathroom must be planned with all safety requirements.
However, if we do not have the opportunity to install a traditional heater in our bathroom, we can opt for an electric heater. It has quite a few advantages. It is easy to operate and effortlessly adjusts the power of operation. It will allow us to set a higher supply temperature at the necessary time and avoid “combining” in the water system. The predictable disadvantage of this method is … price.
The operation of an electric heater is not one of the cheapest. Therefore, it is necessary to invest in a heating control system. A wisely chosen temperature controller will allow you to maintain thermal comfort with minimal heating energy consumption. Remember that the electric heater should be placed away from any sources of moisture.
The third way
The most effective (most labor-intensive) is to create separate heating circuits, which will work independently of each other. So: a separate circuit for the radiator, a separate circuit for the floorboard. In this way, the low supply temperature of the underfloor circuit is not the slightest problem, since the supply temperature of the radiator will be independent of it.
Heating for the bathroom in a house with radiator heating
All right, but what about the situation when the primary heating system in our house is radiator heating, and during the construction of the house we did not plan to use a water floor in the bathroom? This is not uncommon, because in the case of heating for the bathroom (and not only) radiators give a lot of advantages. The problem of not having a laundry dryer is eliminated, because we have a ladder radiator and radiators in a package. The high supply temperature of the radiators will easily allow us to reheat the bathroom and the entire house according to the needs of even the biggest frostbite.
Well, we will not benefit from the comfort of a warm floor, which for many people is priceless. We quickly get used to good solutions. If we try it, heating the floor will most likely become a matter of course for us. Importantly, the warm floor in the bathroom also has a hygienic function; the floor dries faster, does not accumulate dirt, no stains form on the tiles, and no fungus develops. When we want to enjoy a warm floor in an apartment with radiator heating, but do not plan a major renovation, we are not without a way out.
In such a situation, it is worth considering the use of electric heating mats. A great benefit of this option is the ability to quickly heat the floor to a pleasant “warmth at the feet” even outside the heating season, that is when the central heating does not work. We will appreciate this pleasant experience in early spring and late autumn when the heat from the floor spreads over our body after a bath. However, to minimize the operating costs of heating mats, you need to think about a thermostat with a precise control algorithm, which will ensure not only lower bills but also greater comfort in the use of the “home spa”.
We hope that the answer to the question “What to choose heating for the bathroom?” is now much easier.