Are infra-red heaters any good?

ceoltoir

I'm converting a small barn into an office. While researching heating options I came across infra-red heaters.

These heaters seemingly heat objects in the room (walls, furniture, people) rather than heating the air and as such are considered to be particularly suitable for old stone-walled buildings. They're also more expensive to buy than conventional electric heaters.

This type of heating seems to be new to Ireland. Just wondering if anyone has experience of infra-red heaters and how they perform...

coylemj

I think you're falling for the old 'new technology' sales pitch. Infrared involves radiated heat which means they work in exactly the same way as domestic electric bar heaters or the (electric or gas) patio heaters that they have in outdoor areas in pubs.

Do you really want to heat up your stone walls? Bear in mind that when you close up your office, you may be leaving a lot of stored energy behind that will be wasted if you've been blasting infrared rays at stone walls for a few hours. I think a fan heater may be better in those circumstances.

And don't fall for any claims about energy efficiency because with electricity, every unit of energy is converted to heat.

tvjunki

coylemj wrote: »

I think you're falling for the old 'new technology' sales pitch. Infrared involves radiated heat which means they work in exactly the same way as domestic electric bar heaters or the (electric or gas) patio heaters that they have in outdoor areas in pubs.

Do you really want to heat up your stone walls? Bear in mind that when you close up your office, you may be leaving a lot of stored energy behind that will be wasted if you've been blasting infrared rays at stone walls for a few hours. I think a fan heater may be better in those circumstances.

And don't fall for any claims about energy efficiency because with electricity, every unit of energy is converted to heat.

From what I found when I contacted a few companies They cannot give you the running cost in comparison to other heat sources. You definitely better with electric heater.

coylemj

tvjunki wrote: »

From what I found when I contacted a few companies They cannot give you the running cost in comparison to other heat sources. You definitely better with electric heater.

Hang on there. Electric heaters have the advantage that you can carry them from room to room and an electric fan heater delivers instant heat so there is a high level of convenience associated with them.

But in comparison with other heating methods for heating the entire house such as oil or gas, electric heating at peak rates (i.e. excluding storage heaters on a night meter) is the most expensive.

tvjunki

coylemj wrote: »

Hang on there. Electric heaters have the advantage that you can carry them from room to room and an electric fan heater delivers instant heat so there is a high level of convenience associated with them.

But in comparison with other heating methods for heating the entire house such as oil or gas, electric heating at peak rates (i.e. excluding storage heaters on a night meter) is the most expensive.

Infared panels I was looking at are attached to the ceiling or on walls and cannot be moved from room to room.
I was looking at converting a house with storage heating to these panels and the companies could not give the running costs as a comparison. I also looked at uk consumer websites and read the same. Decided not to go that route. That is from my experience.

seamus

"Infrared panels" are just electric heaters.

The only difference is that instead of 2 or 3 big heating elements like you get with traditional heaters, the panels use etched-foil, which is basically just like getting a huge length of really thin wire and arranging it to cover a square area, to give you a big flat element instead of a foot-long bar.

The fundamental physics behind it is identical to any other electric heater and the energy output per euro cost is exactly the same.

What they mainly have going for them is the fact that they can be more low-key than a bar heater and much less likely to cause a fire.

tvjunki

seamus wrote: »

"Infrared panels" are just electric heaters.

The only difference is that instead of 2 or 3 big heating elements like you get with traditional heaters, the panels use etched-foil, which is basically just like getting a huge length of really thin wire and arranging it to cover a square area, to give you a big flat element instead of a foot-long bar.

The fundamental physics behind it is identical to any other electric heater and the energy output per euro cost is exactly the same.

What they mainly have going for them is the fact that they can be more low-key than a bar heater and much less likely to cause a fire.

Thank you for that. Pity these companies do not explain it that way. Also when I asked the running costs compared to storage heating they did not provide me with any information. Now I understand why. They only explained how much they were to purchase and that they were very good.

seamus

It's not in their interests to be honest

"Infra-red heater" sounds way cooler than "electric radiator". Googling it reveals that lots of the installers are snake oil salesmen claiming all sorts of unique health benefits.

They'll be more expensive to run than storage heating because they're on-demand whereas your storage heater uses off peak electricity.

coylemj

tvjunki wrote: »

Infared panels I was looking at are attached to the ceiling or on walls and cannot be moved from room to room.

I suggested that the only advantage I could think of for electric heating was the portability of the appliances i.e. you can lug the heater from one room to another. You're saying it doesn't apply to the system you're looking at. So why would you even consider electric heating?

The reason your prospective suppliers can't/won't give you any numbers is because if they were honest and accurate, they would show that electric heating at daytime rates is more expensive than oil or gas.

seamus wrote: »

The fundamental physics behind it is identical to any other electric heater and the energy output per euro cost is exactly the same.

+1 a domestic unit of electricity will produce the same amount of heat from any electric heater. It may come faster with a fan heater and slower with an oil-filled radiator but the heat output per kWh consumed will always be the same.