Central heating

[xanderma]

I have gas central heating. There is a towel rail type radiator in the en-suite and an ordinary radiator in the bathroom.

I'm wanting to turn off all the other radiators in the house and run the heating just for an hour or so in the mornings (to dry the towels after morning showers, it's so cold here they're staying soggy all day!)

Will this do any harm to the system, and will it cost as much to heat up the system for two radiators as it would if they were all open?

Many thanks

[The Builder]

It certainly won't harm the system - but not very efficient use of it - go for it, or consider electric towel rails.

[thundercrack]

hi,would probably be cheaper to put them in a tumble dryer for 30mins, but if your house is cold all day, then the rads idea may help to warm the house a bit, but, the dampness from wet towels drying will only make condensation which will rise and go all over the house and cause mildew in small dark corners when it turns back to water, so for me its the tumbler.
alf

[stuelwell]

you could change your towel rail and or your bathroom rad to direct . meaning they will run off your hot water system and heat up whenever you run a tap. however, this will be very expensive as you will need to change both your t/r and rad and the pipe work to them. on the up side it will be cheaper than running your central heating on 2 rads, but im with thundercrack it would be cheaper to put em in the tumbler or as the builder says get electric ones
stu

[xanderma]

Thanks for your replies. I thought of electric towel rails, but the cost and inconvenience of getting them wired in (the rooms are both tiled floor to ceiling) put me off.

I'm off down the tumble drier route - doh, why didn't I think of that myself, I'm a 'sensible' mum of 3! Sometimes the simple solutions aren't easy to see! And that's why AB is so good:-)

Thanks again.

[HVACFORBEGIN]

That would not be good for the heating system. It would cause it to heat up too fast and cycle rapidly. It would also cost you a lot, it would be better to put in clothes dryer.
For more on boilers go to www.hvac-for-beginners.com

[malagabob]

Connecting your towel rails and rad to your domestic water hot tap as the previous post sugests not only would the rads cool down as soon as the hot tap is closed and rusty water at the taps, its against water bye laws posing a cross contamination back to the water supply.and possible medium for legionairs