Radiant Heat …. better than a lot of hot air!

What does the heat from the sun, a woodburning stove, and an open fire all have in common? It’s all radiant heat. Many traditional heaters rely on hot air as a means of heating, even the old-fashioned storage heater is mainly producing warm air out of a grill at the top. Most of the hot air from your fire goes straight up the chimney, so it is the radiant heat that gives you that nice cosy warmth.

Heaters that produce radiant heat need less energy to warm a room than those that work by heating air; also hot air rises to the ceiling where it is wasted, radiant heat, tending to heat objects, stays more where you need it.

A typical living room might need a 3.4 kilowatt storage heater to heat the room, German clay core heaters (mainly radiant), might need two kilowatts and the latest in heating technology, far infrared heaters (totally radiant), might need less than 1.5 kilowatts.

Far Infrared (FIR) heaters are very thin and are supplied as a panel for fixing to the ceiling or wall with options on looking like mirrors or pictures.

Heaters producing radiant heat can save on space, reduce those heating bills, and give a quality of heat not found with many older systems.

Oil and gas supplies are diminishing, while new methods of producing electricity such as wind and solar are becoming more common. Radiant heaters with low running costs and no maintenance due to lack of moving parts are the future of sustainable heating.

Finally, remember you buy heating once, you pay to run it forever, so it is important to get it right.