Keeping your bathroom well heated and ventilated should rank high on your list when creating good bathroom design. If you’re like the rest of us who live in moderately changing climate zones then read on my fellow Bathroom Gurus. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and we have some pretty cold winter days up here. There has been many times after taking a hot relaxing shower that I’m scared to get out of that luxurious steamy warmth and step out onto my cold bathroom floor.

I have temporarily solved this dilemma by turning up the house thermostat which makes the whole house a certifiable sauna to the chagrin of my other family members who don’t feel they should have to live in a sweat house. This poses a problem because a comfortable living temperature for the average home is around seventy degrees Fahrenheit, whereas the ideal temperature for a bathroom is around eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit. This is not only uncomfortable to the rest of your family but also financially uneconomical to maintain that high a temperature throughout your house. So what are the alternatives?

First of all let’s look at how heat works. Heat can be transferred through direct touch, through the air or through radiation which is the direct transfer of heat across a spatial area (an example being standing in the light of the sun). And since heat moves from warm objects to cooler objects as long as you are surrounded by warmer objects than your body temperature then you will continue to feel warm.

The best solution is to install a radiant heating system in your bathroom because it heats the surfaces in your bathroom first and then the air indirectly as a by product. So before you take a shower, run an electric wall heater or baseboard heater or even a radiant heat lamp at high temperature for a short period of time to create a radiant heat source that will warm all your bathroom surfaces. The result being that when you step out of the shower all you will feel is the left over radiant warmth radiating from off all the surfaces throughout your bathroom to directly warm your body.

Some other alternatives for heating your bathroom would be to enlarge your heating duct opening to let more warm air into your bathroom. If that is not an option then you can bring in a portable heater as long as you can plug it into a safe electrical outlet and you may also want to consider where you are going to store it when it is not in use.Underfloor heated floor tiles is another radiant heat alternative. Installing a water heater may also provide you with a heating solution. Some of these have tankless water heaters that can easily fit inside a small cabinet unit or vanity. You can even install a towel heater rack, at least that way your towels will be toasty warm when you step out of the shower. Either way, it’s always best to consult with a professional to figure out what is the best type of heating system to meet all your bathroom needs.

Read more about bathroom floors in this related article…

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