Bathroom Heating

There are both hydronic and electric towel warmers at http://www.towelwarmersonline.com. You might be able to find what you are looking for there.

have your contractor get you some info on the Runtal products.they are hot water piped towel racks that are low profile and serve two purposes

With all due respect, bkrules, if you’re going to look at this (to use your word) “thermodynamically” much more information is needed: room dimensions, exposure to heated space(s) and cold walls, infiltration, R-values, desired room temperature, etc.
Radiant floor heating, whether electric or hydronic, can only provide about 25 BTU per square foot in many cases (compare that to about 580 BTU per linear foot of baseboard radiators) and if construction didn’t plan for it, much of that heat can be lost through lack of edge insulation and other factors.

I’m not saying the OP might not be being talked into something he/she may not need. I’m just saying experience tells me never to be sure without doing the math.

Me:
http://www.GatewayPlumbing.com

I really disagree with your contractor.

I would think that radiant electric floor heating plus risers and radiators are overkill. Tile really holds its heat–my friends who have radiant hot water use a much cooler temperature on their bathroom floors than in the wooden floor spaces for exactly that reason. Not to mention, there’s a shower in that room that kicks off tons of hot steam every time it’s used!

Step back and look at this thermodynamically. This is a small room that, when occupied, has FOUR sources of heat: the floor electric radiant, the towel warmer, your own body heat, and the freaking shower! If there’s a real concern that the room will be cold, then your problem really isn’t the heat supply, it’s the heat retention. The solution should not be to install yet another incredibly expensive piece of plumbing that will pump in more heat. The solution should be to keep the heat in.

If you took the money you’d spend on risers and a radiator and instead ripped out the walls and super-insulated them, and ripped out the window and replaced it with a super-insulated window, I think the room would be much more toasty than adding a riser, and you’d still be way ahead financially. Not just in the short-term, but also in the long-term because you wouldn’t be paying to burn gas to heat a leaky room.

In addition, because I am super cheap I’d invest in a timer for the radiant heat. If you were able to set the floor to automatically turn on and off based on your schedule, you could have it turn on an hour or two before your morning routine and it would be really toasty warm in there by the time you got up. And you would save on the electric bills because you wouldn’t be paying to keep the bathroom warm while you were in bed or at work. (Of course, this assumes that you either don’t get up at 2AM to use the bathroom or that you don’t mind being a little chilly if you do!)

Also, a big quality of life improvement is to can get an electric warmer for the toilet seat. That’s a lot cheaper than heating the whole room to get the fixtures warm, and again, it’s a lot more comfortable because you can get the seat much warmer than the room’s ambient temperature. From experience, I can attest it’s a lot more pleasant to sit down on an 80 degree toilet seat in a 60 degree room than to sit down on a 70 degree toilet seat in a 70 degree room.