Heating Options For A Shower Room

Many people will install a shower or wet room in their home, perhaps to compliment a larger family bathroom.

However, installing a wet room is not a project that should be taken lightly. There is a lot to consider when choosing the design, accessories and - perhaps most importantly - the heating system for the room.

This article compares various heating options to create a comfortable and practical shower room.

Underfloor Heating
Underfloor heating is perhaps the most convenient heating method. After all, you won't need to find space to install a radiator or a convection heater.

This is a serious consideration, especially when space is at a premium. With a small shower or wet room, you don't want to give up space to a large heater, so underfloor heating seems like the ideal solution.

While you may have concerns about using electric heating in a wet room, underfloor heating cables are perfectly safe for this, as long as they are installed correctly.

Underfloor heating also provides fast, comfortable heating and means you can use floor space for other things.

Heated towel rails
If you have a particularly small shower room, a heated towel rail may generate all the heat you will need.

This has the obvious other advantage of drying damp towels, and keeping fresh towels pleasantly warm and ready to use.

However, the towel rail may not generate enough heat to warm anything bigger than a small room. Also, towels will obviously block some of the heating, stopping it from heating the rest of the room.

A conventional radiator
If you already have conventional gas or electric central heating, you may want to extend this into the shower room.

This may be the easiest heating option, as it would mean the shower room heating would operate in the same way to the rest of the house.

However, it does mean you would have to find space for a radiator, which could have an effect on your design options.

This would have a particular impact in a small shower or wet room, when you will have only limited storage space.

Fan or convection heater
Your other option is an external heater, such as a fan or convection heater. This is very portable, meaning you can put it in the room only when you are using it.

However, you would have to find a power source to plug the heater in. Also, just like a radiator, this type of heater takes up space which could be used for storage.

While a shower or wet room may not require a powerful heater, as it is generally a very small room, it makes sense to think about heating when planning the room.

After all the type of heating used can have an effect on the design of the room and the amount of storage available.