Horrid Ceiling Heat + Light unit

[dave walsh]

People have forgotten or have no idea what things used to be like! Jon's safe electric hard wired towel rail would have seemed the height of luxury in the sixties

One alternative heater to the combi or a huge light bulb might have been the old trick of using a perforated metal biscuit tin with 60 or 100 watts glowing inside but hardly suitable for the bathroom-probaly no earth on the lighting circuit, not much light and dangerously accessible

Dave

[bionicmerlin]

I changed one a couple years ago . The existing one had failed . The make was a RIMA Ithink. Someone had modified it to have a external pull switch for the element by the door
So 2 pull switches by the door one for the light and one for the element. New ones are still available on line. To my horror someone had wired the external switches with single conduit type cable ,so a bigger job putting that right ,then fitting a rcd switched fuse spur.
just outside the bathroom Andy

[broadgage]

My present bathroom has an infra red lamp as illustrated in the previous post, ES base though. I installed a good quality brass and ceramic holder for it.

[Heatercathodeshort]

These date from the days before central heating became an everyday facility.
The bathroom at Merton Park was absolutely freezing with frost on the inside of the window glass on bleak winter days.
We had one in our bathroom and it transformed an igloo into a more pleasant experience. To be honest it was a much loved friend in that winter of '63!
Care had to be taken when switching off but it was also controlled by the bathroom light switch or pull cord and yes we had a real bathroom wall mounted switch back then! [House built and wired 1906]
The 750w could just be safely carried by the lighting circuit that was generously wired in this case.
We are all mollycoddled today with everything including heating at the push of a button, a far cry from the 50's coal fires, paraffin heaters, bowl fires and very much colder houses than anyone could imagine today. Anything that brought a little comfort to those bitter winter days was more than welcome! Regards, John.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by broadgage

I minimised use of the rather tedious built in switch. In winter the built in switch was left in the "heat and light" position and the unit turned on/off by the existing light switch.
In warmer weather the built in switch was left at "light only" and again controlled by the existing switch.

That's how I generally remember them being used. The 'heat' output was generally slow to start up and even after ten minutes of use was still rather feeble, and tended to be concentrated downwards in a cylinder sort-of like the beam in a Star Trek transporter - which was fine if you happened to be standing in the couple of square-feet of floorspace in question, but step outside it and you were still cold.

Switch it on half an hour before you wanted to have a shave!

[Top Cap]

Had one of these in our old terraced house, no such thing as central heating in those days. Infra-red heating element and just a single on-off pull cord for the heating element, the lamp was duly switched by the bathroom switch at the door. Not wishing to go OT but surely the most horrid things were the small metal boxes containing an open wire element in a ceramic base. Would easily fail the BSI finger test, there was only a very coarse grille on top where people put their soup saucepans, kettles or just left open for heating the room. The nurses from nearby Harefield Hospital were always buying these for their quarters, the majority being plugged into the lighting circuit with no earth by way of bayonet plugs. All taken as normal then but now?

[McMurdo]

HWMBO was using one until the central heating was installed in 2014. Up til then the only heating in the 1960-built bungalow was a coal fire in the living room and the sunhouse heater in the loo. Everything else required warm garments.

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by broadgage

Although marketed for bathrooms, these had other uses including sheds or external workshops and animal pens. They were more convenient than the previously used Tilley radiator for rearing piglets. It was said that in heat only mode, that the dim orange light was sufficient to prevent a sow rolling on and killing her piglets.

Interesting. I showed my wife the photos to remind her about the one her parents used to have. Her first words 'oh, a pig light'. It took me a double take before I understood what she said and the relevance to your post. And no she has no connection at all to farming....

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by Colourstar

I recently moved house and this one is in the bathroom mounted on a ceiling clad in polystyrene tiles painted gloss peach. Mmmm...

Is it just me, or does any kind of heater mounted on polystyrene sound like a really bad idea?

Originally Posted by Lancs Lad

I remember all through the 1970s we had a huge lightbulb in the batten lampholder on the bathroom ceiling.

The bulbs, at least, are still commonly used here. When we built in 2003 each bathroom had a unit with 2x 275 W heat lamps, a 75 W reflecter bulb and a fan. The current ones use an LED instead of the 75 W but otherwise are similar.

No pull cords though. They come with a faceplate with three switches - heat, light and fan - although due to requests from wife and daughter both bathrooms have a mirror light now as well, so I've replaced them with a standard PDL 600 series four way faceplate with named switch mechs.

[julie_m]

British bathroom extractor fans take an always-on live feed and a switched feed from the main light, and have a built-in over-run timer which keeps the fan running after the light is turned off. This avoids the need for separate switches and prevents leaving the fan on unnecessarily. There is usually a three-pole switch outside the bathroom to disconnect both lives and the neutral.

I've replaced them with a standard PDL 600 series four way faceplate with named switch mechs.

I would like the UK switches available with labels, we have a few with more than two gangs, a labels would prevent the click (oops) click (oops)... that SHMBO does last thing at night.

[Techman]

It looks like the OP's heater plus light unit has received a more friendly reception than he perhaps thought it would.

While I was up in the loft a while ago, I remembered that I had one of these heater light units stashed away up there. I can't exactly remember where it came from, but think it may have been given to me by a neighbour a few years ago. I've brought it down and taken some pictures of it. I don't think it's anywhere near as old as the OP's example and has a nice stainless steel shroud for the light bulb. This shiny shroud will reflect heat away from the lamp and its holder and perhaps help to spread the heat into the room a bit better than the version with the glass shroud, but possibly at the expense of some light output.

I'll have to apply some power to it and test its working efficiency

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

I would like the UK switches available with labels, we have a few with more than two gangs, a labels would prevent the click (oops) click (oops)... that SHMBO does last thing at night.

I'm surprised they don't there - it just seems like common sense!

https://www.pdl.co.nz/products/home-...pe=g_200001203

[dglcomp]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

I would like the UK switches available with labels, we have a few with more than two gangs, a labels would prevent the click (oops) click (oops)... that SHMBO does last thing at night.

The MK grid plus system is an option (although the labelled switches seem orientated to kitchens), or clear brother p-touch labels (or similar) would do the job.

http://www.mkelectric.com/Documents/...rid%20Plus.pdf

[Colourstar]

Goodness me! I never thought this thread would take off in the way it has. I've only just caught up with it and its been a fascinating read, so thanks to everyone has contributed. I'm beginning to regard my unit with a more kindly eye now.

Mine is labelled 'Sunbeam/Rima' and I'm pretty sure I remember Rima as a maker of fan heaters and other similar items that were retailed by Argos in the 1980s. It seems the design has barely changed down the years. Techman's looks to have a 2010 manufacturing code on it, which suggests these units had an even longer production life than I imagined.

The idea of re-wiring the switch so the light is controlled on a separate pull switch by the bathroom door is a good one. I also found what looks to be the frosted shade for this lamp amongst some junk in the garage, so maybe it'll live on after all.

Steve

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by Top Cap

Not wishing to go OT but surely the most horrid things were the small metal boxes containing an open wire element in a ceramic base. Would easily fail the BSI finger test, there was only a very coarse grille on top where people put their soup saucepans, kettles or just left open for heating the room.

You can still buy those in street markets in Egypt, and I guess other places.

[McMurdo]

It appears these heaters have fallen foul of an EU directive first issued in 2009 and now in full force from 2018 that requires heating appliances above a certain wattage to incorporate energy saving devices such as thermostats, open window detectors, room-occupied sensors and full-function timeclocks... and the outlawing of other features that might lead to the misuse of energy such as fixed-level heat settings.

The number and type of energy saving devices required depends on whether the heater is fixed, temporary or mobile.

Plenty of reading out there, the directive is here:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-cont...9L0125&from=EN

[AC/HL]

A Ceiling Heat + Light unit can hardly be described as mobile though.

[McMurdo]

as a fixed appliance the rules are more strict.

Manufacturers of 'mobile' heaters are no longer allowed to include wall or ceiling fixings, brackets or keyholes to convert them for mounting.

[mike_newcomb]

Hi,
I worked next to the Rima Electric Factory which was in Ealing Road, Alperton, where this Heater was almost certainly made. I had one in the past.

They produced an assortment of well made small Appliances.

#14 here makes interesting reading: https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=6609.0

Sadly they (and Griffin and George where I worked) is now a Housing Estate.

Regards - Mike