ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Bathroom Heaters

Most very old heaters are scary. They were called "electric fires" here so didn't generally come with much more in terms of safety protection than the real fire in your hearth.

I'm not very keen on the modern plastic fan heaters either though.

Our present bathroom has a towel rail / radiator connected off the oil-fired central heating system, ( pressurised water/glycol at 20psi ), which runs at a 75C (165F). We find this more than adequate, as the house is well insulated. The new bathrooms in the longhouse will have underfloor heating using the same boiler/furnace, but with thermostatic by-pass valves to put the liquid through at 40C (104F). I've decided to install similar towel rail/rads, as above, off the 75C supply as backup.

We had one of those Belling 'Electric Fires' when I was a lad! It had 2x 1kw bars, but Ma frowned on using them both at once. "I'm not made of money, me lad!" , (a bit of an understatement- we were always flat broke!) I cringe now, but we used to toast bread on it at tea-time, holding a slice up to the bars with a big brass toasting fork! Eeek!
Alan

This is pretty much how our central heating system works:



The only difference is that we have a natural gas and pressure jet (gasoil) boilers as the two heat inputs.

The copper cylinder is the hotwater tank.


That's the actual 3 pumps + other gear for "zoning" the system.

You wire the pumps, boilers and thermostats into this unit and it controls everything centrally.
http://www.systemlink.ie/ for more info (I think the system's patented)

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 07-19-2005).]

djk,
Why two boilers in your setup?

For my system, I got a design manual from a government quango, then designed the system on the following parameters;
Diesel burner; boiler/furnace, 36kw, ( 115,000 bthu) - also runs rads in 'new' house.
15mm pex-polythene underfloor pipe, all loops = 100m (328'), 10 loops total = 1 km ; 6 on ground floor, spaced at 225mm (9") centers. 22mm (7/8") od copper feeds to manifolds, as the longhouse is 40 meters (130') long including the boiler room.
Floor water temperature 40C (104F), and boiler temp 75C (167F), planned settings.
Thermostatic mix/return valves provide floor water- 2 zones only.
100W/m2 output under insulated cement floor.
70W/m2, 1st floor under wood floor.
Ground floor will be ceramic tiles.
Total area 90m2 per floor.
Est output 15kw (9+6) max.
(When we move next door, the new house will just be on frost stats in winter.)
3 circ pumps, 1 per zone , 1 x boiler circulation.
Programmable controllers, 1 each zone.
Thermostats, 1 per zone.
Insulation is 2" extruded ps under the concrete, and 8" of rockwooll, 13mm drywall lined ( 1/2" sheetrock) walls/roof, + double glazing. Under the 24mm wood floor, it's alum foil reflectors on 25mm insulated board, these zones are also air 'sealed'.
Water pressure regulated at 1.5 bar, 20psi, by a diaphragm gas/water bottle. I assume yours is in the boiler?
We heat all our water by electricity, as cheap rate tariff is about the same price per kwh (gross) as diesel oil in France.
I have run up the ground floor system, still building first floor.
I put 30% glycol antifreeze + inhibitor in the system. I can go to England in the winter and not worry about power outs, ( our 500ma poco trip does not reset itself after a power cut.)
Her indoors also wants reversible aircon and VMC (mech venting), and (apparently) were getting a unit similar to the one you posted, where I'm going to put it is my problem!
Plus we have a woodstove in new house, and I'll be fitting one in the renovation, but I still have some issues to solve for that, namely a remote air supply.
Hope to post pics on completion.
Alan

Oh yeah... i _love_ those things! Still use one occasionally if I can make sure there are no combustibles in a 10-feet circle around. Last winter I came home t a pretty cold house since the gas central heating had been down to anti freeze for the weekend. Until the radiators got really warm I used the "heating sun" as they were called in old-fashioned German. Mine is 'only' 600 Watts, there were some up to 2000W I think. Still it heats up quite nicely!

"A pic of what's in my bathroom...1948 vintage though the flex is somewhat younger. It's a typical 1KW bar radiator. Don't you love the thought given to safety?". I bought one of these in 1989 with a better (safer) grille on the front. I use it as a dummy load to test generators as it is 1200W (approx 5 amps). They are still around but looking a bit flasher than the old units.

My grandmother had a radiant heater like that with two bars (2kW) and ludicrously inadequate guards against things touching the elements. On washing days it was used in the kitchen scullery, on a nice damp stone floor, and it had a clothes horse placed in front of it with wet pillowcases and sheets steaming and scorching away and tumbling merrily down on top of the thing.

Mind you, her whole house was a death trap by modern standards. The gas pilot lights on the cooker often used to blow out, so you'd go into a roomful of gas in the morning. She also had an outrageous electric mangle that had no switches or safety cut-outs at all -- plug it in, and the rollers would turn, pulling through towels, fingers, knuckles, the lot. She also used to use one of those terrifying drip-feed paraffin heaters that at certain times used to go up in a fireball, apparently for no reason. "Oh, it does that. Does anyone want more to eat?", she'd say, without turning a hair.

They still show up in junk shops from time to time. Add a few bits around the reflector and they're a pretty good imitation of a 1930s Buck Roger's style "death ray" gun!

Jooles: that description sounds really wild!
I remember having read Belgium has very low safety standards regarding gas...

We used to have a huge gas fireplace, you might have seen them, actually a closed gas heater inside a big porcelaine enclosure (maybe 1m tall and 1 1/2 m wide) intended to look like a classic wood stove. Imagine something like this but uglier:


It had piezo ignition, thermostat and everything, but occasionally it just wouldn't ignite properly, and a huge (1m wide and at least half a metre high) flame would shout out of the front bottom... pretty impressing!

Though I still prefer catalytic gas heaters... they used to be real common here some 30 years ago I think and some have survived. Nothing better than sitting in front of the blueish-red glow of such a slightly scary brown beast...

Here you can occasionally see old quartz heaters in bathrooms. They have no bars, grills or whatever, just the reflector with the open rods. They were usually mounted on a wall, out of reach though. The ones that are still sold have grilles in front of the rods. We still have one around waiting to be installed again... after the central heating came we didn't have the time and so far nobody missed it...

Parabolic heaters are still sold in the USA.

Commonly called the "heat dish"

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