1 September 2020

What wattage element do you need for a heated towel rail?

When installing an electric heated towel rail in your home, it's important that you have an element that is the right size for your towel rail. Too small and the rail will struggle to heat up, too large and you could be wasting unnecessary power.

In this article, we'll show you the correct size element you need for your rail to ensure you've got the right amount of power.

Common towel rail sizes and their wattage

Size matters when it comes to powering your electric heated towel rail with enough electricity. The greater the length, height and thickness of the bars all increase the surface area of the rail, so it will need additional power accordingly.

Below we provide the most commonly purchased heated towel rail sizes and specify the wattage needed to power them.

(Helpfully on our website, we provide the correct electric elements with each towel rail to make the decision-making process much easier for you.)

Size MM (HxW)	Watts
600 x 600	300 - 500
600 x 1000	300 - 500
1200 x 400	400 - 600
1200 x 500	400 - 600
1200 x 600	400 - 600
1600 x 600	600 - 1000
1800 x 600	600 1000

What is an electric element?

In very simple terms, the electric element is the component that harnesses electricity to heat up the fluid inside your electric towel rail to make it hot.

There are two main types of electric element:

Non-thermoststatic elements - Also known as single heat elements, these types of element will heat your heated towel rail up to one fixed temperature.
Thermostatic elements - Also known as variable heat elements, this type of element will allow you to adjust the heat of your electric towel rail. Because of the greater level of control, these are usually slightly more expensive than non-thermostatic elements.

Smart heating elements

We have a huge variety of electric heating elements on our website including some with smart controls.

Electric heated towel rails fitted with a smart heating element allows you a greater degree of control over your heating than you would with manual controls.

Some smart elements come with remote controls while others come with WiFi connectivity, enabling you to adjust the temperature of your towel rail from your smartphone or tablet.

This heating micro-management is not only convenient but can help you to make sure you are only using electricity to heat your rails when you need it, eliminating wasted energy.

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