One thing for sure is that Cookie the Cat seems
happy with the new Infra Red
Heating Panel that we have on test in our cold North facing Conservatory.
This is 'not' and in 'no way' a detailed scientific test, as this has already been done and documented by scientific folk across various scenarios with technical minds immeasurably larger than mine.
This is moreover a real world, in action, every day, into and through Winter, in a North facing Conservatory that always struggles through huge heat losses, and inevitably ends up costing us a small fortune to heat every year and keep at a reasonable usable temperature via electric underfloor, and a large K2 DPC steel panel radiator, plus a 3kW fan heater 'disguised rather badly as a log burner' as back up and support.
So, its a no frills 'prove it in that room' type scenario as real people use it.
This all came about by chance, after meeting some nice chaps at The Belfry for a coffee over Summer (sadly not for Golf)
and this has eventually lead on to us taking the technology a little more seriously in regards to the modern day equivalent of what I used to know of back in 2008 when i first came across this, in the commercial-agricultural sector in Europe.
Needless to say its come on just a little since then, more efficient, less clunky, fully controllable via the likes of Honeywell Hub systems or others, and managed via your tablet/smart phone via an App etc etc...
Seems perfect for heating the people that need heating, and the objects, rather than the air that moves around and changes frequently.
I realise that this is not UK mainstream, and currently will have a place interestingly we think at two opposing ends of the market....
High end Self-Build and maybe some New Build, and ironically hard to Treat solid walled electrically heated properties plus PRS and High Rise at the other end, where we often find storage heaters.
Clearly there are many applications in between these points, but this is obviously dominated currently by boilers (1.6 million of them every year kind of prove this).... these clearly all need maintaining, servicing, repairing and the systems they are connected to can make things wet, obviously these IR panels can not....
But, for hard to treat at one end of the spectrum and hard to specify for at the other, it begins to look compelling, particularly when you take into consideration the running and O&M costs which are in order low and zero... vs other technology we currently use.
The capital cost of the technology is also surprisingly palatable, and the installation of this again is very easy and not labour intensive.
Also more and more with connected homes and PV Battery Store this electrically driven low consumption heat emitting kit begins to make even more sense than before, when being able to provide affordable warmth in hard to reach and treat situations, controllable easily by the occupant or others be that family members or carers.
We know on our tariff, that it would cost on average if it were constantly on maximum, about 0.04p per hour, (obviously it isn't on all the time, it cycles in and out/on and off) so it maybe only on for a few minutes of every hour when up to temp, so actually nowhere near 0.04p per hour in real terms, which in itself is rather interesting, we feel it could be more like a penny or so in the real world once up and running to temperature, but, we will see in the cold light of day or night.......
We also have a smart meter plugged into this as well, so it will be interesting to see how this costing and efficiency journey evolves as temperatures move South. Subsequently as the Infra Red warms the floor and walls as time progress's, which will help retain some heat rather than have it lost through the air and glass, but so far, albeit it's not exactly been Arctic this week, its proved to be the only form of heat required in that North Facing Glass Room, which has to make primary sense as a stand alone tech given that no 3kW fan heater, underfloor heating, or radiator has been needed....
Time will tell though........
PS: They also look OK too...... (Yes, i know its not fitted aesthetically perfectly it's only on test).....
