A heated towel rail is really just a decorative radiator. However, the design and colour of the heated towel rail means that they use the only deliver a fraction of the heat of a radiator of comparable size. A Neasden Plumber can fit a heated rail.

So before you do anything, measure the size of the room that the heated towel rail is going in and then go ‘online’ and find a ‘heat requirement calculator’. Lots of websites offer some form of calculator and all you need to do is enter the rooms dimensions and fill in some details about the room, such as letting the program know if you have double glazing or is it north facing? etc.

This will advise you what Kilowatt (kW) or British thermal unit (Btu) output you need from your radiator. Bearing in mind that this is a minimum value, so opt for rail and gives a slightly higher output, especially if you are going to cover it with lots of towels.

Things to bear in mind:

a). Chrome heated towel rails produce far less heat than an equivalent sized white rail.

b). Heated towel rails are usually set slightly higher from the floor than the 15 cm of a traditional radiator this is for aesthetic rather than heating reasons.

c). You generally use straight radiator valves for a heated towel rail. This is because the valves attach underneath the rail as opposed to the traditional angled radiator valves that fit on the side of the radiator. If the pipework is coming out of the wall you could stick with angled valves. Neasden Plumbers know valves.

d). You usually have to adjust the CH pipework to fit a heated towel rail. This is the case is much easier to fit the towel rail and is perfectly level before fitting the pipework to the rail.