# Cold Bathroom



## Tristan (Dec 5, 2007)

For all those who rely on 100% wood/pellet as your heat source, what is it like to wake up at 6 am, draggin yourself into a cold cold (very cold bathroom), then stripping down to your birthday suit to do whatever business you have to perform?  How do you folks keep your bathrooms bearable?  Eletric heater in the bathroom would be out of the question.  Thank you.


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## thephotohound (Dec 5, 2007)

I guess I'll start with the obvious: put down radiant heat. I guess that clarifies as "electric" but I can;t think of anything else besides directional fans. What's your other heat source currently? Electric baseboard?


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## budman (Dec 5, 2007)

I have a combo ceiling vent fan with heat that warms the bathroom :coolsmile:  real nice.


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## begreen (Dec 5, 2007)

I had a digital thermostat on the pellet stove. Never woke up to a cold bathroom. The stove was fired up and running at least 30 minutes before I woke up. Otherwise I would put in a safe, electric heater on a timer. There are  oil-fired radiator style heaters with built-in timer and thermostat.


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## ChrisN (Dec 5, 2007)

It's not unusual for my bathroom to be below 50 f on some winter mornings.  When I get off my dead a$$ I plan on installing radiant heat under the floor, it shouldn't be too hard as there is an unfinished basement under it.  In the mean time I use a portable electric heater.  It heats things up enough that by the time my wife gets her turn 45 min after me, I can avert any potential mutinies!


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## BrotherBart (Dec 5, 2007)

We leave the bathroom doors open and they are as warm as the rest of the house. If for some reason they aren't, the electric heaters in all three warm them quick. That is what the GFCI breaker is for.


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## 'bert (Dec 5, 2007)

Tile it and add electric under floor heat at the same time.  Mine is on a thermostat timer.  Don't wake up to a cold bathroom or cold floor - same at night.  The rest of the day it's off - but then i am gone so who cares.


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## Highbeam (Dec 5, 2007)

Why on earth is an electric heater out of the question? Is it cost or safety?

I certainly enjoy using mine to bring the temp up from 60 to 70 in the mornings. The heater blows warm air on me while I take care of business and then runs while I am in the shower. Maybe a total on time of 20 minutes at 700 watts which is about .23 KwH which at 10 cents per KwH only adds 2.3 cents per day to my electrical bill.

Mine is safe in that it is plugged into a GFCI outlet.


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## Henz (Dec 5, 2007)

they make an electric subfloor heating system????


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## BrotherBart (Dec 5, 2007)

booshcat said:
			
		

> I Just Grin and Bare It



Well, there went dinner.


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## Henz (Dec 5, 2007)

I just looked up Sun Touch electric mats at Lowes. I wounder if you can lay these down and then simply put a throw rug over them and they would be safe in a bathroom?


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## babalu87 (Dec 5, 2007)

We have a Cape and the bathroom is at the top of the stairs, the stove is downstairs in the living room. Besides the living room that bathroom is the warmest room in the house.

The downstairs bathroom, thats another story. It takes the slack out in a hurry


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## kd460 (Dec 6, 2007)

http://heatedcarpetsnthings.com/

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/snug-as-a-bug/electric-heated-rug-from-panasonic-294532.php

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2005/02/heated_rugs.html

Probably other brands and different types/styles out there as well. KD


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## bjorn773 (Dec 6, 2007)

I have a radiant panel heater in the bathroom on a timer. It kicks on about 2 hours before we awake and the bathroom is toasty. I also have one in the bedrooms furthest from the stove for those really cold nights. Only 425 watts and a surprising amount of heat. Very safe as well.

http://www.econo-heat.com/productspec.html


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## SLK0217 (Dec 6, 2007)

re: cold bathroom floor-
We totally gutted and remodeled a bathroom last year, tore out old shower, etc to bare studs. laid radiant floor, into shower and the shower seat and wall thereby. NICE warm room, stone floor. Be sure to read up on enough floor support to not have movement ot crack the tile & grout, etc. Look at this for system that can go onto a shower, not all will do that. Plan on our floor being taller when done (read: cut off the door) by the time you add underlay, cement board, thinset thicker due to heat, and tile. Couple links that helped us out. CAUTION: If you got a pet they will evict you and take over that warm floor room!
http://tileyourworld.com/ http://www.floorheatech.ca/tools/consultation.php
lol.


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## Henz (Dec 6, 2007)

I guess my question is this, if I do not want to rip up my floor in any way, can I simply tape an electric mat onto my existing hardwood floor and then put a throwrug over it? I have a super small bathroom and the damn floors are wicked cold. I am not worried about causing any cracking in the floors since they already have huge gaps where the tounge and groove and spread.


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## gpcollen1 (Dec 6, 2007)

Adirondackwoodburner said:
			
		

> I guess my question is this, if I do not want to rip up my floor in any way, can I simply tape an electric mat onto my existing hardwood floor and then put a throwrug over it? I have a super small bathroom and the damn floors are wicked cold. I am not worried about causing any cracking in the floors since they already have huge gaps where the tounge and groove and spread.



I am pretty certain that is a no no as far as install specs...

Most that I had looked into were available for either under a tile floor or a floating floor.  So if you are talking about a bathroom, it would be easy - and not so expensive - to put a floating floor on top.  You would have to staple the heating mat to the floor however.  

Check out some of the sites on line.  There are enough with some good info on them.  I would add the links but they are bookmarked on home computer.

G


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## Henz (Dec 6, 2007)

thanks..I did find a site that sold actual heated throw rugs. have a emial into the co to see if they can be used safely in a bathroom. that would be ideal for me.


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## Tristan (Dec 6, 2007)

All these ideas seem to be sound.  However, I wish not to use expensive electric heat nor is it wise when you have toddlers in the home.  So I guess I'll just have to live with shrinkage.


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## Henz (Dec 6, 2007)

me too


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## Rhone (Dec 6, 2007)

I'm really lucky.  The bathroom is above my boiler so the floors are warm, and one wall of my bathroom is the back of my masonry fireplace & chimney, my insert with its non-insulated liner heats up that mass nicely.  My bathroom is the warmest room in my house, and when my insert doesn't have a fire the mass of the chimney keeps it toasty for almost up to a day.  Though, my wife is the hottest thing in my bathroom in the morning.


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## colsmith (Dec 7, 2007)

The bathroom we visit in the morning is at the top of the stairs, so is probably the warmest room in the house.  Might get a bit cooler early in the morning, but I am sleeping then.  I stay up late tending the fire, and hubby gets up early (our natural way, which works out great for heating with wood) so there isn't much downtime for our stove.  Also it is a soapstone so gives off heat for a long time.  Mind you the downstairs bathroom gets a might chilly sometimes.  I sometimes turn the furnace on before taking a shower in there.  Last year we were very determined to not run the furnace except when we were away from home, but this year I have decided to use it when I want it.  Otherwise I run the water hotter and longer, and since our water is heated by electricity and the furnace is gas, seems better to use the gas for the little extra oomph.  (Our electricity comes from a huge coal plant about 7 miles from my house.)


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## burnham (Dec 25, 2007)

The Sun Touch is nice stuff, it really works well and doesn't draw much power.  You can install it under the subfloor from the basement, but it's nowhere near as efficient (total waste of time) as when it's embedded in mortar.  It wires into a 110v thermostat, that is digital and programmable.  Never place it on your finished floor, I would also be opposed to using a heated floor mat in the bathroom.... GFI or not.  If you're looking to add a heat source, and not going to install new tile and radiant electric heat, a hard-wired heat fan is probably the best bet.  It is pretty straight foreward to install, and can be wired to a common time clock switch to heat the room once or twice a day.


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## packerfan (Jan 2, 2008)

I went to the local big box store and picked up a nice piece of carpet (remnant) and a carpet cutting knife.   I was easily able to cut the carpet to match the dimentions of my bathroom, and it worked out great.  No more cold feet!!   I figure that once it warms up again, I'll just roll up the carpet and store it in the basement for the summer.   Just remember that if you get a really thick piece of carpet, that you may have to shave a little bit off the bathroom door.


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## jebatty (Jan 3, 2008)

Know what you mean by a cold BR. When we remodeled our BR last winter, I added a toe space electric heater connected to a timer wall switch. When needed (like right before a shower/bath), usually turn the switch about 1/3 of the way = 15 - 20 minutes, and instant heat blowing across the floor and don't need to forget to turn the darn think off. If it's on for 20 minutes, cost is 5 cents. The household boss is very happy.


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## backpack09 (Jan 3, 2008)

packerfan said:
			
		

> I went to the local big box store and picked up a nice piece of carpet (remnant) and a carpet cutting knife.   I was easily able to cut the carpet to match the dimentions of my bathroom, and it worked out great.  No more cold feet!!   I figure that once it warms up again, I'll just roll up the carpet and store it in the basement for the summer.   Just remember that if you get a really thick piece of carpet, that you may have to shave a little bit off the bathroom door.



Ewwwwweee that is just wrong... did you carpet your kitchen too? My floor mats get nasty enough and we wash them every week, I cant imagine what a carpet would grow in through an entire season.


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## n1st (Jan 19, 2008)

I guess it depends where your BR is.  My wood stove is in the middle of the downstairs (of a cape) and the BR is off the hall close by.  Because our BR has a fan in the shower cieling, I keep the door closed so I don't lose any heat via the fan hole.  In the morning I open the door and the heat from the hall pours in.  The moisure from the BR shower pours out.  And all is well.


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## wallis54806 (Jan 20, 2008)

There are a lot of good ideas here, but I think we are all spoiled. My mom grew up in Northern Michigan with only wood heat and an outhouse. That was in the 40's.


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## marky_mark896 (Jan 22, 2008)

Guardguy said:
			
		

> There are a lot of good ideas here, but I think we are all spoiled. My mom grew up in Northern Michigan with only wood heat and an outhouse. That was in the 40's.



You're right about that.  I was just talking to my dad about our new woodburner, and told him even if we ran out of nat. gas, I could probably heat this house better with this stove than they were able to heat the farmhouse where he was born and raised.  He told me about stories of the upstairs bedroom being so cold he needed 10 blankets, and water in the toilet froze by morning.  Now that's a cold bathroom    :bug:


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## KeithO (Jan 23, 2008)

You can fit a re-circulation pump on the hot water line and plumb the return through a wall mounted radiator.   This way all you will do is draw some heat from your water heater.   The pumps have 3 modes: Off, Automatic (will keep the water temp at around 90F in the hot water line) and Timer.  Pump will run about $90-120 I don't know the price for wall mounted radiator.   Electric draw is probably less than 50w (when running).   

I personally have one of the oil filled electric heaters with a timer and thermostat and it works just fine and I have seen no change to my $35 monthly electric bill.


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