Your morning routine can make or break your entire day. When the temperatures drop and daylight hours grow shorter, the last thing you want is to start your morning off by stepping into a freezing cold bathroom. We have taken a look at all the ways to keep your bathroom warm.
It’s true that the bathroom is often the chilliest room in the entire home. Not only are there a few common reasons for this phenomenon, but there are even more solutions to fix it.
Here’s Why Your Bathroom Is So Cold
It’s full of cold, hard surfaces
Most bathrooms consist almost entirely of cold tile, porcelain, and linoleum. If the journey from your bed is fully carpeted, it’s no surprise that stepping into the bathroom first thing in the morning can feel like a trip to Antarctica.
By nature, bathrooms just aren’t designed to be warm and cozy. At least, not in the way your bedroom and family room are.
It’s not connected to your HVAC system
In a surprising number of cases, heat vents are not required in bathrooms. If your home is a recent construction and the bathroom is surrounded by other rooms, it might be completely unheated by your HVAC system.
It’s against an exterior wall
The answer to why your bathroom is so cold might be as simple as its location. Any room adjacent to your home’s exterior wall will be harder to heat in winter. The presence of windows or inadequate wall insulation will make this problem even worse.
It has a unique purpose
Put simply: you don’t use any other room in your house like you do the bathroom. Even if your bathroom is the same temperature as the rest of your home, it will instantly feel colder when you undress and step into the shower.
6 Simple Steps to a Warm Bathroom This Winter
Understanding why your bathroom is so cold is just the beginning. If you want to make your bathroom more comfortable and inviting, it’s time to fight cold air at the source.
Whether you’re looking for a quick fix to get you through the winter months or are planning a full-scale reno, try these tips for a warmer bathroom today:
1. Eliminate chilly drafts
If your bathroom is actively letting cold air in and warm air out, finding the source of these drafts should be your first step to a cozier space. Windows are the biggest culprit, followed by plumbing and electrical openings in your bathroom walls. Use caulk to seal any gaps around your bathroom windows or utilities.
You might also find that warm air escapes underneath your closed bathroom door into the rest of the house. Adding a rolled-up towel or under-door draft stopper during the winter months can help trap that warm air where you need it most.
2. Check the vents
Even if your bathroom is connected to your HVAC system, you might still find it colder than the rest of your house. Before making any big investments, double-check that all of your bathroom’s air vents are fully open and producing warm air. The sooner you diagnose an HVAC blockage, the easier it will be to fix.
3. Swap light bulbs for heat lamps
Let’s be real: very few people actually enjoy cold showers. If you wish your bathroom was just a little bit warmer during those early winter mornings, the solution could be as quick and easy as installing a heat lamp unit.
Heat lamps use infrared technology to warm the human body, just like a steamless sauna. However, bathroom heat lamps consume more electricity than normal light bulbs, so it’s a good idea to only use them when necessary.
4. Install a towel warmer
A towel warmer is a simple, affordable luxury that every bathroom should have. While a towel warmer won’t do much to increase the room’s temperature as a whole, wrapping up in a pre-heated towel after a shower is a great way to combat the harsh winter months.
5. Skip the exhaust fan
Using your bathroom’s exhaust fan is key to controlling excess heat and moisture throughout most of the year. When winter comes around, though, it’s best to keep your exhaust fan usage to a minimum. Since your home’s air is naturally dry in the winter, there’s little need to worry about moisture build-up.
6. Invest in heated floors
If a full bathroom remodel is on the table, consider investing in heated flooring. Not only is in-floor heating great on your bare feet, but it can actually increase the bathroom’s ambient temperature more efficiently than other heating methods.
As with any home maintenance issue, diagnosing the problem is the first step. Fortunately, most cold bathrooms are a result of something simple, like a draft or blocked vents. So before you accept a freezing cold bathroom as just a part of life, take the time to try these tips for a warmer bathroom this winter.
Don’t forget to check out our heated jacket review to keep you warm whilst you are outside as well!
