Your towel rails are in the wrong place and it’s adding £120 to your annual energy bills
HEATED towel rails are perfect to dry towels and warm a room, but having them in the wrong place can add £120 to your bills.
The kitchen gadgets are ideal in the winter, when sun and outside heat are hard to come by.
They can be of just as much use in the warmer months too.
But you want to make sure yours are installed in the right place to save yourself from throwing money down the drain.
Nicholas Auckland, energy and heating expert from Trade Radiators, advised placing them away from windows.
That’s if you want to heat any towels and clothes, and the room itself effectively.
He said: “If you want your heated towel rail to heat the bathroom as well as the towels, then you need to make sure that they’re placed away from windows, as open windows will let out the heat.
“In a bathroom, it’s vital that you open windows to let out steam and therefore reduce the amount of damp and moisture in the bathroom, so to save energy it’s best to keep the heated rails away from the window space.”
On top of this, making sure you take towels off the rails when they are dry will ensure heat is allowed to spread throughout the room and keep it warm.
Nicholas added: “You should think about placing them in a cupboard or drawer in order to let the heated rail emit heat into the room instead of into the towels.
“A heated towel rail can use up to 200W an hour, meaning that if you have it on for 10 hours a day, it’s using 2,000W a day.
“For gas heated towel rails, this currently costs around 21p, and for electric heaters, this costs 66p.
“If you half the time that it’s turned on, and make sure that your bathroom stays warm by keeping the rail away from windows and removing towels, then you’re halving the price to just 10p or 33p a day.”
Based on Nicholas’ calculations, by halving the time your electric heater rails are left on, you would save roughly £120 a year.
The savings if you have a gas-heated towel rail are less – but you would still earn back around £36 a year by halving the time it’s left on.
If your heated towel rail is already installed underneath the window, you can try moving it to another wall.
But you will most likely have to get a plumber in to do the job for you.
According to myjobquote.co.uk, this will cost you around £200.
However, if it means saving yourself £120 a year on your bills, it might just be worth it in the long-run.
How else can I save money on my energy bills?
It’s not just having your heated rail in the wrong place that’s unnecessarily adding to your bills.
Where you put your washing machine can see costs rack up if you’re not careful.
There are a number of ways the appliance can be prevented from working properly which will lead to repairs needing to be done.
And Checkatrade says these types of repairs cost you as much as £180.
Meanwhile, if you’ve got a tumble dryer, it might be worth opting for a different method of drying your clothes.
The appliances are some of the most energy-guzzling in your home and a 2,500-watt model costs 85p an hour to run.
In comparison, a typical heated airer costs about 16p an hour to run.
Yes, a heated airer might take more time to dry your clothes, but even still, if you used it for four hours (64p), it’s still cheaper than using a tumble dryer for one hour.
Beyond this, washing clothes at lower temperatures can also help slash your bills.
Particularly dirty items need a higher temperature wash, but cleaning most of your clothes at 30 degrees instead of 40 degrees could save you £9 a year.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk