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Supplemental electric heat for bath w/o rad

Dooverdixon
Dooverdixon Member Posts: 49
edited November 2020 in THE MAIN WALL
I have a steam heat system in my house. Unfortunately 2 baths do not have rads and tend to get a bit chilly on very cold days. Not terrible, bit not same temp as the house. I have some walls opened up now for a remodel and wanted to add some supplemental electric heat for these two room. The easy option would be to slap in 2 500 watt basic electric baseboards (100 sq ft rooms) and walk away. But i ithought i would run it by the extremely helpful folks here first.

One of the baths has an unfinished floor that will be getting tile....so in this room electric radiant flooring is an option. However this bath will not be a primary bath and will 99% of the time be used as a powder room off the main living room/ kitchen.

The second bath is finished and has a hardwood floor. So options are more limited.

Both spaces could utilize kickspace heaters as an option

I was thinking about getting one of those mysa thermostats to control whatever i get to avoid heating the room during wasteful times.


Any input??

Comments

  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,024
    An electric towel bar is a nice option, all sorts of controls available. I had a Runtal in my bath, real nice, fast recovery.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
    Zman
  • Dooverdixon
    Dooverdixon Member Posts: 49
    would that put out enough heat to actually heat the room?
  • Zipper13
    Zipper13 Member Posts: 229
    Our house is heated by steam. Previous owners owners added an addition of about 12'x15' with vaulted ceilings, skylight, slider door and a bunch of windows. They elected to heat it with electric baseboards. I want to say about 3,500 watts. the boiler has capacity, but adding steam would have been a real pain due to layout and construction methods.

    We upgraded the baseboard thermostat from a "dumb" bimetallic dial thermostat to a 1st generation Mysa (at least think there have been upgrades and generations since). We saw clear year over year savings (owing to the ability to set schedules and and setbacks while at work), and increased temp stability and comfort (owing to the way they modulate the on/off cycles to effectively have high/med/low/off rather than just on/off). The app to control it and the firmware on the thermostat itself are adequate and straightforward, but early on there were hiccups and disconnects and bugs, that have since been fixed in the app and the firmware updates that happen automatically. customer service was always extremely quick to respond via email to troubleshoot, early on when there were bugs and glitches (smooth sailing for a while now since those software updates were made). all in all I'd recommend Mysa based on out experience. its paid for itself for sure. I like that I can track electricity it uses too.

    I think Mysa works with electric radiant floor heating, too, but I don't have experience with that, myself

    The prior owners also added a bathroom in the eaves and heated that with 1,000watts. It gets enough residual heat from the rest of the house. I just set the thermostat to 60 in there as a backup in case we hit a particularly cold night, but we might crank it up if we're having a bath or for the coldest mornings getting ready. It heats fast with the 1,000wat baseboard. That room still has a cheapo thermostat and we're OK with that.
    New owner of a 1920s home with steam heat north of Boston.
    Just trying to learn what I can do myself and what I just shouldn't touch
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,725
    Yes if the room load is less than or equal to the output of the heating unit. No, if the room load is greater than the heating unit output.

    But you already knew that. You just needed a reminder.



    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,024
    Depends on what type of power you have available, also

    Run a room load calc with the Slantfin ap to see what you are looking at

    I suspect it gets some heat from the other heated rooms. Hot goes to cold🚀
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • Dooverdixon
    Dooverdixon Member Posts: 49

    Yes if the room load is less than or equal to the output of the heating unit. No, if the room load is greater than the heating unit output.

    But you already knew that. You just needed a reminder.



    Lol, touche....I should have said, "Do they make towel warmers that put out enough btu's to heat a whole room"

    Cool idea for the bathroom that isn't currently being rennovated.

    EdTheHeaterMan
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,725
    Yes, they do make towel warmers that can heat a bathroom. I used a Hydronic towel warmer as the only radiator in a bathroom on several occasions. They work great with a thermostatic radiator valve.

    In your case, the electric version would be most appropriate. The thermostat can be remote or it can be internal. Lots of options.

    If you have not heard of this thing called the internet, you might want to look into it. There are lots of examples of towel warmers on the internet
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
  • Condoman
    Condoman Member Posts: 90
    I have 2 baths and both have in wall Markel brand heaters with thermostats. They require 20A dedicated circuits and each is on an in wall timer to prevent long running.

    This has worked well for us because our ranch is one zone and will not ever warm the bath to users satisfaction.
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,024
    The key with towel warmers as radiators is to not cover the entire radiator with towels :) You need to leave some of the metal exposed to get heat into the space.
    Order a large size if you plan on warming towels and the room, would be my suggestion. The family will find all sorts of clothing articles to drape over them.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • pecmsg
    pecmsg Member Posts: 4,776
    In floor electric radiant to take the chill off the tiles.

    I've seen Towel warmers that used the domestic HW. Only ran while filling the tub or taking a shower and the towel was warm!
  • Dooverdixon
    Dooverdixon Member Posts: 49
    hot_rod said:
    The key with towel warmers as radiators is to not cover the entire radiator with towels :) You need to leave some of the metal exposed to get heat into the space. Order a large size if you plan on warming towels and the room, would be my suggestion. The family will find all sorts of clothing articles to drape over them.
    I love this idea, but it is damn hard to find a towel rack that puts out 500 watts.  I spent most of the evening searching as to avoid the sarcasm train of ole ed.  I'm going to keep looking because this seems fantastic for my upper bath.

    Still need to decide between kickspace, floor radiant, or baseboard for lower bath though.


  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,725
    edited November 2020
    I did see a 600-watt Towel warmer from UK You may need to special order, looks like the standard is 300-watt. They have a 600-watt element available.

    Sales Order Line: 01325 321 236

    No offense intended. Just a byproduct of membership in the Society. I can't help myself sometimes.
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
  • Dooverdixon
    Dooverdixon Member Posts: 49
    No offense received. I just want to stay on the good side of those offering free advice!  

    I appreciate that!

    Apparently these items are much more popular in the UK.  Us yanks are behind the curve as usual
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,024
    edited November 2020
    Jaga has some up into the 1K plus range.

    Here is one of the copper radiators I built with a 300W element from Chromolox and a an electronic set point control. A bit of mineral oil inside.

    Looks like Jaga sells the element and control, nice for DIYers. I've seen these element kits on UK sites also.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • Dooverdixon
    Dooverdixon Member Posts: 49
    whoa. that is beautiful. Impressive work!
  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,155
    edited November 2020
    I had a similar situation with a bathroom adjacent to bedroom. Bedroom had pretty large radiator but no room in bathroom for one. I looked at a lot of options and elected to install a Panasonic exhaust fan with built in small heating element. The heater is controlled by a Leviton selectable timer; works well to take the chill out if the bathroom door has been closed or if you just want to bask after coming out of shower.   :)

    Not as elegant as the radiant harp tho!!

    https://www.lowes.com/pd/Panasonic-WhisperChoice-0-8-Sone-150-CFM-White-Bathroom-Fan-ENERGY-STAR/1000616117?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-kab-_-google-_-lia-_-223-_-bathfans-_-1000616117-_-0&placeholder=null&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwf39BRCCARIsALXWETyttN-wvVP40-fkgTxFjQBsbGzLrofTH_KnXSm-TqzemVrq0HKpfNEaAshWEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds


  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,455
    Electric floor radiant is fine but if you use that you have to heat the bathroom all the time........on-off operation is not good.

    Baseboard works well if you don't need heat all the time