Whether you’re renovating your bathroom, making some simple changes or simply updating your current towel rail, one of the improvements you may have considered is a heated towel rail. Great idea. Heated towel rails are super luxurious and provide a load of benefits, but one of the questions that people often ask is: do heated towel rails use a lot of electricity? Let’s explore this question in detail, but first here’s a little tease—you might be surprised at the answer!
How much electricity do heated towel rails use?
The short answer is: not a lot. Most heated towel rails are very effective in heating and drying your towels. In other words, they don’t use a lot of electricity to perform their job.
To provide a bit more detail, the typical heated towel rail consumes 100 to 200 watts of electricity per hour. The difference in wattage can depend on a range of factors, including the size of the heated towel rail and the design.
At, say, 35 cents per kilowatt-hour, the daily running cost for a 200-watt heated towel rail would be about $1.68 if it were on all day. That’s about the same as having three 60-watt incandescent light bulbs switched on. And it’s around two to four percent of what a standard split system air conditioner will cost to cool and heat a room. It’s also a lot cheaper than using your dryer to dry your towels after each use!
Plus, it’s important to point out that most households don’t need to have their heated towel rails on all day. If you use your towel warmer for four hours a day, which is relatively typical, the daily cost will only be around 28 cents.
Most heated towel rails can be wired to a timer switch
Most heated towel rails can be wired to a timer switch to help you control when your unit is on and off. If you usually shower in the morning, you may want to set it to start warming up an hour or two before your shower, so your towel will be nice and toasty. Then set it to turn off two hours after your shower, so your towel will be dry.
Generally, you can override timers when required. You can also easily update the timer settings—for example, as the seasons change and temperatures rise or fall.
What makes a towel rail efficient?
Past heated towel rails used heating liquid inside the rails to create heat (called hydronic), but that’s fairly inefficient. These types of towel rails also require more maintenance. Most of today’s units use a dry heating element that is much more efficient, because it doesn’t lose as much heat to the surrounding space.
As well as making sure the heated towel rail you choose uses a dry heating element and has a timer, there are other ways you can improve efficiency and use less power:
- Material matters: Aluminium is widely used in the aviation industry because of its lightness, but did you know that it’s also a great conductor of electricity? Heated towel rails made from aluminium are more efficient at transferring heat to your towels and your bathroom than other types of rails. By the way, it looks pretty hot too!
- Right size, right fit: If you don’t need to warm four towels every day, choose a smaller rail. Oversized models may look great but use more energy than necessary. On the other hand, too small a rail overloaded with towels will need to run longer to do the same job.
- Design plays a role: While horizontal towel rails are the most common, you can also purchase vertical heated towel rails. While the power output of vertical towel rails is similar to horizontal units, they are more efficient. These units lose only around 7% of their heat, as the warm air is projected onto the wall rather than into open space.
- Bar and fin models (like our Gordon Heated Towel Rail) outperform standard rod elements. They heat up faster and distribute warmth more evenly across towels, meaning your towels dry more quickly. While it’s a matter of personal preference, we think these also look better—it’s like having a functional and stylish art piece in your bathroom.
Introducing Gordon, our energy efficient towel rail
If it’s energy efficiency and good looks you’re after, Gordon is your go-to heated towel rail. It offers exceptionally low power consumption, so you can leave it on for longer—and even all year round if you like.
Lab testing shows Eskimo’s innovative vertical design dries towels in a third of the time compared to traditional horizontal heated towel rails.
Explore Eskimo Heat’s full range of energy-efficient towel rails and upgrade your bathroom with smart, sustainable comfort.
