Can someone answer a question which I have pondered over for some time. My wife covers the bathroom radiator with her towel. Does this increase or decrease the cost of heating the house?

 

The hall thermostat is set to 20 deg C. My thoughts are that if one radiator is insulated in this way, the boiler has to work harder by heating the other radiators to maintain a house temperature of 20 degrees. On the other hand, because heat is not radiated away from the radiator in the bathroom because of the towel covering it, the hot water in the system stays hot longer than it would have done had the radiator not been insulated in this way, so the boiler doesn't have to work so hard. So what's the answer?

the net energy used will stay the same with or without it.

there would only be a litte latency in the system, that`s all

its just going to take longer to heat up since the surface temperature of towel will be less than that of the radiator, this will cause the radiator to be slightly hotter and the rate of heat transfer to be slightly slower

Also, if the hall is not directly next to the bathroom with the doors open then the temperatures in the two rooms are probably related only very very slightly...