Strategy for unheated bathroom?

[laohaire]

Our house is heated by steam through radiators. There is a radiator in every room except the bathroom.

Should we close the door to the bathroom to improve efficiency, and just have an unheated room?

Or should we keep it open and let the hot air from the other rooms heat this one as well?

I know this is a matter of personal preference - are we ok having a cold bathroom, or are we ok spending the extra $ - but would like to hear some opinions and experiences.

[laohaire]

Oh, forgot to add a relevant tidbit. There is an overhead fan with a heating option - so when someone is about to take a shower, it can be turned on so it's not ridiculously cold in there.

But I don't have a good understanding for whether it's more efficient to run an electric heater via overhead fan (which is probably not the most efficient gadget in the whole world) for 15 minutes a day, or if it's really just better to let the rest of the house heat the bathroom all day.

[wendyland]

We have a very small bathroom. I actually block the vent in there and keep the door open. It feels the same as the rest of the house. We also leave our hot water in the bathtub until it's cold so that we use the energy of the hot water to heat and add moisture to our house. Or at least that's what we did last year. This year, we have a toddler and the water is a hazard.

[Kim Allen]

we have a oil radiator thingy for our bathroom you can buy. we got ours a walmart but i\m sure you could buy them other places. Its perfect for our bathroom it kicks off and kicks on by itself. there is no maintance you just plug in and use. not sure if this helps any.

[4evermom]

Where is the bathroom?

We keep the door closed to the bathrooms on the cold side of the house (north) because that seems to make sense and cuts down considerably on drafts. One bathroom is interiorly situated (not on an outside wall) and we leave that door open figuring it wouldn't make a difference. One bathroom is on the south side which tends to be warmer (sun plus no prevailing wind) and we don't worry about that door being open so much. We do have heat vents in all of them but keep the house temperature low except for a couple of zones where we hang out the majority of the time (big uninsulated drafty house). My mom preheats her north side bathroom with a space heater before having a bath.

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by 4evermom

Where is the bathroom?

Down the hall and to the left Sorry, I couldn't resist, even knowing it was tres bad.

Anyway, yeah, good point. North side, upstairs. No direct sun ever, but also no winds. Well-insulated, small window. Not drafty at all, but definitely not soaking up any natural heat. Ehhh, I think I'm just going to have to call this a matter of preference - I think I'll keep the door open.

[SquishyKitty]

We have a large bathroom that is always frigid. We have a space heater that we go in and turn on 15 minutes before we start showering in the morning, to take the bite out of the cold.

There are two radiators in there, but they don't do much unless they're turned on full blast. We are propane heated, and it's too expensive to run them like that.