Hello everyone,
I currently have a small problem in my apartment. We usually don’t heat the entire 130 m² (1400 sq ft), especially not at night, but only the rooms where we spend time.
However, this means that our towels in the unheated bathroom dry very poorly and quickly start to smell musty.
We usually shower in the evening and don’t heat the bathroom at night.
One option would be to heat the bathroom at night just to dry the towels. The towels hang about 3 m (10 ft) away from the radiator on the wall, so the room would need to be heated well for quite a while to dry the towels properly.
A second option would be to install a second radiator. However, the connection would have to be done by the landlord (or their plumbing contractor), and an energy meter from ista would need to be installed. This would involve significant additional costs.
The third option would be an electric bathroom heater that is only turned on in the evenings to dry the towels.
Option 3 actually seems like the simplest and, at first glance, potentially the most efficient solution. But I’m curious how efficient these actually are. The model would be about 1600 x 700 mm (63 x 28 inches) with 900 W. If the heater would only need to run for 10 minutes to generate enough heat to dry the towels, it could be cheaper/more efficient than heating the entire room via district heating.
But if the heater has to run for an hour or longer, consuming more than 1 kWh per day just for towel drying, it might be less attractive.
Does anyone have experience with electric heaters or maybe even advice on this specific issue?
Thanks a lot for your opinions
AleXSR700
I currently have a small problem in my apartment. We usually don’t heat the entire 130 m² (1400 sq ft), especially not at night, but only the rooms where we spend time.
However, this means that our towels in the unheated bathroom dry very poorly and quickly start to smell musty.
We usually shower in the evening and don’t heat the bathroom at night.
One option would be to heat the bathroom at night just to dry the towels. The towels hang about 3 m (10 ft) away from the radiator on the wall, so the room would need to be heated well for quite a while to dry the towels properly.
A second option would be to install a second radiator. However, the connection would have to be done by the landlord (or their plumbing contractor), and an energy meter from ista would need to be installed. This would involve significant additional costs.
The third option would be an electric bathroom heater that is only turned on in the evenings to dry the towels.
Option 3 actually seems like the simplest and, at first glance, potentially the most efficient solution. But I’m curious how efficient these actually are. The model would be about 1600 x 700 mm (63 x 28 inches) with 900 W. If the heater would only need to run for 10 minutes to generate enough heat to dry the towels, it could be cheaper/more efficient than heating the entire room via district heating.
But if the heater has to run for an hour or longer, consuming more than 1 kWh per day just for towel drying, it might be less attractive.
Does anyone have experience with electric heaters or maybe even advice on this specific issue?
Thanks a lot for your opinions
AleXSR700
A
AleXSR70016 Nov 2021 00:06Well, since I’ve been talking about radiators the whole time, it should be clear that this is not underfloor heating ;-)
Heating has little to do with being social or not. That’s an old, nonsensical pseudo-argument. Heat from the ground floor rises upwards. The apartments in the middle are mostly heated by the others. So who really needs to heat how, for it to be genuinely social? Certainly not everyone equally ;-)
Leaving aside the obligation for district heating imposed by the landlord, the lack of requirements for photovoltaic systems, etc., the “social” aspect has no place here, as it is completely absurd. And blindly heating is no favor to the environment either.
Towels dry if it’s warm enough, the humidity is low enough, and there is sufficient air circulation around the towel. If one or more of these conditions are not met in winter, it becomes problematic, or one has to artificially adjust one or more parameters.
I have certainly given it some thought ;-)
Heating has little to do with being social or not. That’s an old, nonsensical pseudo-argument. Heat from the ground floor rises upwards. The apartments in the middle are mostly heated by the others. So who really needs to heat how, for it to be genuinely social? Certainly not everyone equally ;-)
Leaving aside the obligation for district heating imposed by the landlord, the lack of requirements for photovoltaic systems, etc., the “social” aspect has no place here, as it is completely absurd. And blindly heating is no favor to the environment either.
Towels dry if it’s warm enough, the humidity is low enough, and there is sufficient air circulation around the towel. If one or more of these conditions are not met in winter, it becomes problematic, or one has to artificially adjust one or more parameters.
I have certainly given it some thought ;-)
AleXSR700 schrieb:
Well, since I’ve been talking about radiators all along, it should be clear that it’s not underfloor heating ;-) No, that’s exactly the problem. If you had underfloor heating, the room temperature would be consistent, but there wouldn’t be radiant heat for towels. Usually, a separate towel heater is installed. That basically matches your issue.
The same can happen with radiators that aren’t used even when needed: people turn them down when the room is not in use, even though the towels still need warmth.
It’s quite clear here that you’re not using it.
So it would be pointless to install another heater next to one that’s already working.
Use the existing one, and that’s it. If it’s set to level 3, two towels should be able to dry on it. Maybe adding a rack on the radiator would help to increase the drying area (maybe you have six people in your household?... Answering such questions often helps the original poster a lot).
A
AleXSR70016 Nov 2021 00:26Once again: please read carefully.
As already mentioned, the towels are not near the radiator. This is not spatially feasible. Therefore, there is no direct heat transfer from the radiator to the towels. And we are not going to hang or switch the towels on the radiator every hour until they are all dry.
Unfortunately, the landlord did not consider this and simply installed a long heated towel rail that could be used to hang towels.
That is why we are considering correcting this oversight by adding a second one (the first one cannot be simply replaced, as this is a rental apartment with district heating).
P.S.: Before the next futile suggestion comes up: it is also not possible to install a towel rail on/above/in front of the radiator, otherwise we would have done so already.
Picture it like this: a rectangular room. A small radiator beneath the window on the short side. On the opposite end of the long side of the room, two towel rails.
It should quickly become clear that this can never lead to optimal drying. So either a dedicated solution or a lot of “wasted” heating at night.
As already mentioned, the towels are not near the radiator. This is not spatially feasible. Therefore, there is no direct heat transfer from the radiator to the towels. And we are not going to hang or switch the towels on the radiator every hour until they are all dry.
Unfortunately, the landlord did not consider this and simply installed a long heated towel rail that could be used to hang towels.
That is why we are considering correcting this oversight by adding a second one (the first one cannot be simply replaced, as this is a rental apartment with district heating).
P.S.: Before the next futile suggestion comes up: it is also not possible to install a towel rail on/above/in front of the radiator, otherwise we would have done so already.
Picture it like this: a rectangular room. A small radiator beneath the window on the short side. On the opposite end of the long side of the room, two towel rails.
It should quickly become clear that this can never lead to optimal drying. So either a dedicated solution or a lot of “wasted” heating at night.
If everyone has to go to the well for water and one person doesn’t go even though they could, but instead lets water be brought in without compensation, they are acting unsocially, regardless of whether some people in the same building have to collect more or less water anyway.
From an environmental standpoint, this also makes no positive difference. On the contrary, heating through the neighboring apartment is less efficient than heating directly in one’s own apartment.
From an environmental standpoint, this also makes no positive difference. On the contrary, heating through the neighboring apartment is less efficient than heating directly in one’s own apartment.
AleXSR700 schrieb:
Read carefully once again. Yep! … no need for many words: I would advise using common sense and look for the source of the damp towels there. Apparently, you’re the only one who can’t get towels dry in a normal apartment with standard radiant heating because you don’t want to heat your room to a normal temperature.
AleXSR700 schrieb:
But please correct me if I’m wrong! 🙂 I’ll correct you: if you want to dry towels, you have to heat. It doesn’t matter whether you want to warm the room yourself or not. To dry moisture, sometimes you have to turn the heating up high—full power…
No pain, no gain!
To me, your replies sound like you don’t want to find a solution!
G
Gartenfreund16 Nov 2021 02:01I don’t quite understand the problem.
When we want to dry towels, we hang them over a warm radiator. Often, this is even done in a room. Unless the towels are soaking wet, they usually dry quite quickly.
I’m assuming the bathroom also contains the toilet. At some point, you’ll need to use it anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem to simply swap the dry towel for the damp one then.
When we want to dry towels, we hang them over a warm radiator. Often, this is even done in a room. Unless the towels are soaking wet, they usually dry quite quickly.
AleXSR700 schrieb:
And we’re not going to hang or change the towels on the radiator every hour until they are all dry.
I’m assuming the bathroom also contains the toilet. At some point, you’ll need to use it anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem to simply swap the dry towel for the damp one then.
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