Infrared heating, is it the Holy Grail of electric heating? Installed our first unit successfully. 

Mount it on the ceiling facing the floor. It heats objects rather than air.

I am gonna like it even before watching it. I keep it on my watch later list... Happy new year.. thanks for the gift !

The puzzle continues… Great video and wishing you and yours a happy and healthy 2022.

We've currently on a similar heating journey to yourself and have been trialing far infrared panels in the wet rooms and home office. We've found the response time (1-2 minutes) to feel comfortable in front of the panel has allowed us to take a flexible approach to heating. Specifically, we heat the rooms to 12c when unoccupied and then have motion sensors in each room which changes the thermostat to 18c while there are people present. This seems to give a pretty good balance re comfort and energy efficiency. As an aside, we've noticed a major benefit for far infrared in the bathroom. Since the walls are being heated we are getting less condensation and haven't had to worry about mould etc since they were installed.

I think you're absolutely right to question this. We all need to reduce the amount of energy (and stuff in general) we use, if we are to fend off the worst that climate change will inevitably throw at us if we don't. Too many people are waiting for governments and companies to "do something", but we can all "do something" right now and you are stimulating that discussion. Well done.

Thank you for this. I've been considering one of these pointing at our sofa for the evenings when we're settled and watching TV.

As a Heating Engineer of 30 years, living only a few miles from yourself in Norfolk, and just recently moved in to a Brand new build house, with a Vaillant ASHP, Sadly from a cost perspective, which It all comes down to in the end your better off with a, A-rated Oil Boiler and better controls on your rads like a Honeywell evohome system. To give you some Idea leading up to the 15th December our new build has underfloor heating (so the best option for ASHPs) like you we are on Octopus go (5p for 4hrs and 16.5p the rest of the day) we do though however leave the heating on a constant 21°c in lounge and 19°c everywhere else. On some of the coldest days up to this date we were recording on the smart meter £8.00 per day in electric, I also metered the ASHP separately and this was clocking up £6.50 of that energy (In oil terms at the currant price that would be approx 12litres of fuel) As of the middle of December I ripped out the ASHP, fitted a A-rated Worcester oil boiler with a Oil meter and so far from December the 15th to the currant day with the heating set unchanged our worst oil consumption day has been 5.5litres of fuel (cost of £3.08 for that day, we paid 56pence per litre of fuel) that's a huge saving. Sadly I've studied ASHP for many years and there just not suitable for our climate, ours would run for about 30mins then completely freeze up, then steal a little heat from the house to defrost over the next 10mins and continue this process day and night, our cold and more importantly damp air of or late autumn, winter, and early spring really doesn't suit ASHP technology. Sadly from a green perspective we all know the generation of electricity and transmission of it is far from green or efficient, but like you I'd like to do my bit for the planet so keep well up to date on up and coming technology, Not forgetting all oil boilers could run 100% bio fuel, if only the cost of that could come down! Which as I stated in the beginning it all comes down to for most off us. Interesting to see your results though. Hope this helps cheers

A timely video, I've just turned the radiator in our dining room off permanently and shut the door. Been heating that room every day and 98% of the time it's occupied by some empty chairs! Thanks

Another good video, thank you. I also fitted a similar infra red heater and found it works better mounted on the ceiling. Overall, I really do think that money is best spent on insulation. I have almost finished building a new house doing 95% of the trades myself and insulated as per building regs, the floor, walls and roof. I used as much insulation as I possibly could, over and above what the regs stipulate, and even in sub zero temperatures with no heating on at all it rarely goes below 11C. Having said that, the house is south facing and has a lot of glazing though which it gets solar gain which helps. Anyway, keep up the good videos, they do help a lot.

I’ve just installed two IR panels on the ceilings of our bathroom/ downstairs loo. Klarstein ones with full smartphone control. Noticed the difference straight away. Got a thermostat on them so you can fine tune what you want. Can seemingly set as many on/off periods during the day. Set mine to come on at the end of our overnight rate and for when the kids get home from school. Got 4 more on order for other rooms, looking forward to feeling the results

Interesting video as I’m starting to move to infrared heating. My home is a flat in a 100 year old house. External uninsulated walls in all directions. Big rooms, large windows and high ceilings. No gas into the building so heated with electric panel heaters. It’s difficult to keep warm and uses a lot of electricity. The bathroom has a northerly and easterly facing external walls with a large window. The eastern wall gets no sun in the winter. I used to have a large heated towel rail with a 400W element heating the 2m square room. Even with it on constantly the bathroom was still like the inside of a fridge on very cold days. If the room isn’t heated mould does start to form. I fitted an 800W infrared panel with a towel rail. It has a thermostat built in. It works brilliantly. The room is warm but I do leave it on constantly to keep walls dry and prevent mould. With the thermostat the heater is on for about a minute then off for a long time. I don’t monitor the consumption directly but with the thermostatic control it is off a lot more time than on so consuming less than 400W on constantly. The heat is very different. A lot more pleasant. As it heats things directly not the air, one of those things being humans. I’m still sceptical about controlling temperature with a thermostat measuring the air because it heats us directly as well. It does work in my bathroom because I want to keep everything warm to prevent mould growth. It sounds like you have a more modern construction in your home as you’re using bathrooms without heat. It does make sense to only heat the room when you use it. So you could use a PIR to turn the heater on when the bathroom is in use. You’d get that nice infrared warm glow immediately. A PIR wired in parallel with a thermostat/timer means you could heat the room to a desired temperature on cheap overnight tariff and in the day the PIR would simply bypass the thermostat/timer when someone walks in. So far I’m impressed with infrared. It is a more pleasant heat and looks like it can save money. Moving to other rooms it looks like ceiling mounting is going to be the best way to do my large open plan living area. It will be a big job so might wait until summer.

What a fascinating discussion today! My first thoughts were ceiling mount as others have said. But then, take your daughters room you would want a remote sensor, on the desk say, to control the environment remotely? If you had ceiling panels and a floor covering which absorbed and convected heat up into the room. That might create a comfortable environment more quickly? I still like the idea of a well sealed house with a controlled heat recovery and circulation system. Create heat in your main rooms and have it drawn into the bathrooms and kitchen where it is extracted and recovered before returning warm air to the bedrooms etc. However it is more complex, closer to a passive house and hardest to retrofit. What has stopped me following this path is my wife is always concerned about cooking smells from the kitchen moving into the other rooms. Not via the heat recovery system, just unless you run high airflows they seem to flow against gentle air currents with normal human movement etc. This then requires large gaps on doors which allows sound transfer and you have fan noise. Returning the warmed incoming air into the bedrooms and living space solves those issues though the complexity of the installation again makes it a difficult retrofit! Keep up the good work we are all learning!

I went through this last year Nigel, which is why I have thermostats in every room controlling each infra red heating in each room, and keeping the whole house at 20-21 degrees all the time with the IR heaters just kicking in and out as the stats call , this way you don’t have colder rooms pulling heat out of the warmer rooms, once the heat is in the walls there not on as much as you think, if you left that panel on for two days you wouldn’t be able to use the room because it gets so hot, in November it cost me £67.70 to keep the whole house ( 4 bed ) between 20-21 degrees 24 hours a day 7 days a week all month

Have added ceiling panels in some rooms, and a glass panel / towel rail in bathroom. Agree with your analysis. Drastically reduced our carbon footprint by switching from gas towards electric and infrared. For house have used about 125kWh per week of electric compared to 600kWh per week of gas in the previous year.

I've installed several of these IR panels and found them an excellent solution, but have used them in 'not spots' where the central heating rads are further away so they top up in that area. I setup timers/stats to mirror the central heating setup. Also a few years back I saw a german system that feeds hot water through moulded ceramic tiles that lock together can be used on walls and celings. It was probably the best IR system I've seen.

Was just going to type EXACTLY what John, previous commentator typed. We used to breed see little piggies when I was a young lad and we would hang an infra red lamp about a yard above the piglets, not too close or you'd have bacon. My gas central heating boiler died on Christmas eve so luckily had lots of electrical heaters to keep us all warm (cost about £7 for the day). NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT THE SUNSHINE because it's the only thing keeping me warm these days, but hey thermal underwear works, when I was a boy we didn't have bedroom or bathroom heating. I am using blankets to keep warm when dat sun don't shine. But as soon as my solar radios start cranking out the music I know I've got to watch my monitors to switch individual heaters on. My short answer to you is to just plug in proper infra red lamps in your bathroom to avoid having to do superfluous wiring. Lower the lamp nearer to you but use lamps instead of expensive infra red panels, they're only a fiver per lamp..

Another "Bog Standard" video from Nigel, keep up the good work! Interesting Re IR panels, but lag and controls don't seem to be there yet. As for ASHP, at over £20k for a system in a 2 bed cottage we are doing up, going to pass on that, especially as needs bigger radiators (they don't seem to mention that in all the hype). Happy New Year!

Very informative production particularly how to calculate the size of heater required to cope with the size of my living room.

I converted an old coal-shed and 'outhouse' toilet into a shower room. It was a single skin brick room and I battened and insulated it as best I could. Then put a 200W underfloor heating mat under the vinyl flooring. Keeps it toasty in the Winter and as it's thermostatic it kicks in and out on its own and doesn't use too much power. If the IR panel heaters were 'instant' it would make sense to have them come on with the light switch, but it looks like they're more of a slow-burn warmth and unlikely to generate significant warmth in the time it takes to go to the loo!

One suggestion out of left field (as the say): when I visited Japan almost every toilet seat was heated. We found that even unheated WCs were not a problem provided the toilet seat was warm. Can't cost much to heat that 24x7 although you need power to your toilet of course :-)

The best way to warm a bathroom is to heat the floor. By looping the hot water in pipes in the floor, the hot water will heat the floor and you will still have enough hot water for your shower or facewash. It is clever, it works and it does not cost more than some pipes in the floor :)

Living on the west coast, humidity is usually high. I find comfort levels higher with a dehumidifier on the go because: 1) cold dry air goes unnoticed while cold humid air feels chilly & 2) drier air less dense so takes less energy to convectively heat than humid air. My folks in their 70's have said they've felt more comfortable visiting here since dehumidifier has been doing its thing..

I believe the idea is to find something that creates a warm/comfortable home so main rooms are always at a nice level. The holy grail is to find how to do this in the cheapest method and being is good for the environment as possble. I have added the Honeywell wireless thermostats so I can heat certain rooms at certain times, maintain a minimum temp for the home and it cut my useage of my LPG by about 30%. Unfortunately I had a visit from the LPG company to inspect the storage tank and pipes. It is now in an illegal position and pipework needs replacing, so will not fill it up again until fixed! I am now seriously looking at ASHP. Also thankfully, I found a company to fix my insulation from the 1970's that has disintegrated. Insulation is the biggest thing with ASHP's from what I have found. Also will have to replace many radiators, but then they are almost 50 years old now, so changing them is not a bad thing. Good luck in your quest for heat.

Bathroom has an electric towel rail only used in the depths of winter as the bathroom gets heated from radiators in the common parts of the building. En-suite is in a ‘cold corner’ of the house and I rely on a wall mounted fan heater. Yes they are power hungry, but barely used for 30 minutes a day and supply instant warmth. Provided you use battery stored solar energy both solutions work with the fan heater proving far quicker and effective for every day use. Downsides of the fan heater are noise and some dust burn off when used after being off during the warmer months. But then again they are cheap and DIY replaceable (usually every 10 years) when they give up the ghost. I still rely on gas CH and a wood burner for space heating, however I see this hybrid model moving away from gas and progressively increasing the electric component. The snag is when and how, which is why I watch your videos as you are addressing these questions through practical experience.

I still have the 60-70's bar fire . On for 15 -20 minutes, I wouldn't change it, works great.

I really relate to the feeling of waste you're getting at. Since switching to air-sourced heat pump from gas, we've lowered our energy consumption in the house by ~%70. A huge chunk of that was lowering the temperature after we had a source of power we could keep track of. We'd set the thermostat to 68F, and use upwards of 50 kWh a day, turn it up to 76F (we won't name any names!) and suddenly the house used 98 kWh. Made me come full circle, and reevaluate the accusation that space heaters are inefficient. Ultimately, it seems like an IR panel and heat pump combination, with lower set thermostat controls, is the best bet to help your sweater and warm drink keep you toasty. Also, heated toilet-seat/bidet has been probably the best house improvement we've made. Fair warning, it'll spoil you.

Interesting, I have installed 2 infrared panels plus an infrared mirror. I can echo many of your comments. I have a wood burning stove with back-boiler so the central heating only work if I fire up the stove. That is apart from one radiator in the hall which works by gravity feed off the hot water thermal store (250 litres) which is in a cupboard off the kitchen That is heated by the stove in the evening and Octopus cheap rate over night. That one radiator is left on from October to March and heats the central core of the house. So having set the scene I wanted heat in the bathroom in the morning, I removed the heated towel rail from the wet system and installed a 800W infrared panel. Set to 16°C. So it comes on overnight cheap rate when the house cools. I ramp it up when I go into the bathroom and its pretty instantaneous heat. Then turn it back to 16°C. I then replaced the radiator in the kitchen with a 500W panel last week. Its much neater, more compact. I set this to 17°C and it cycles on and off. If I want heat in the kitchen its only if I am sitting there having a coffee or breakfast. I might be turning it up if we get some cold weather but its the sunniest room in the house and the sun is shining (and the solar PV working). Heater not needed when cooking. The downstairs cloakroom needs no heater. I fitted the infrared mirror in a dark hall to brighten it up and have heat as and when needed. Its above the gravity fed rad I mentioned earlier. Its been so warm this last month we have not bothered turning it on. Its mainly there so that when my wife is doing her hair in the morning she can have that lovely warm glow from the modest infrared heater. It feels like a lot more than 350W. Its only on for 5 minutes but we will see what happens if we have some proper cold weather. I love the feel of infrared heat and it is so controllable and works in harmony with our wet heating system. As an aside I was skiing in Italy many years ago. Stopped at a bar for a beer. The sun was out, I took my jacket and jumper off and took up the suns warm rays. Picked up my beer, the froth on top had frozen! So clearly the air temperature below zero even though I felt warm. So yes I am a great believer in the power of infrared heat. By the way I see you as a Kia EV6 for the next car? I still have my Kona.

I use a dessacant dehumidifier to move air around. It adds slightly to the heat in a room and I find it allows me to turn the existing heater down.

Wishing you all a happy new year Nigel. As per previous comments, mounting on the ceiling seems to be the best method for that room. The quotes we had included having some mounted on the ceiling. Mrs S wants to know if its a white Honda E you have on order?

They tend to recommend infrared heaters be mounted to the ceiling then they send out down. You could also use a motion sensor that switches on the heating when you walk in

You could try clear 275 watt infrared spot lamps. They can usually be run off the lighting circuit and give instant heat and light. I've seen them installed in (suitable) existing light fittings in the colder months, and replaced with a regular lamp for the rest of the year. Purpose-made fittings are also available containing four of these lamps... Instant heat just when you need it 😁

Great to hear your thinking on this. Bathrooms etc are the trickiest problem. I think one answer to the old-v-new world problem is a compromise. There are two crucial things about a bathroom - dry towels and and acceptible (not horribly cold/dank) background air temperature. So, how about going back to an oil filled towel rail that can be set to a trickle heat, enough to keep towels fresh and simultaneously keep the air temperature in the room at a not-freezing ambience? Any good or would even this not work in the new world we are entering?

My trial IR is a Hershel in kitchen mounted on the ceiling above a key standing place. It runs off the lighting circuit which with the move to CFL and LED has plenty of capacity for the 400W. The thermostat is linked into an app which allows time of use as well. So it comes on to heat only at times required and then only if the room needs heating. It runs overnight on Octopus Go if cold. The room still has a radiator (GFCH) with thermostatic valve which now has less work to do. And it is on at main 'time of use' during day, again if temperature has dropped. And of course it can be turned on from app if an unusual pattern of use one day. It suits me as increased comfort and reduced gas bill. My next one will be in bathroom. On ceiling, (I can keep it out of wet zones). The intent is to heat me (and the loo seat). The main towel drying will still be from CH towel rail. The only challenge will be thermostat.

This debate reminds me of visits to my grandparents as a child in the early 1960's. They had an unheated bathroom which was horrible in the winter until they eventually fitted an infrared heating lamp to the ceiling. Mind you, this just made the back of your head hot when using the washbasin and had very little impact on the rest of the room. Fortunately I don't have your dilemma as my wife won't tolerate a cold bathroom so any attempts to reduce energy consumption in that area will be a non-starter. Having a means of keeping towels dry is important too as they soon become damp and smelly. The alternative is frequent washing but this just uses energy in a different way unless you buy a dolly-tub/mangle and do all the drying outside.

Heated toilet seat! 😂 Happy New Year.

Central Heating is now akin to Americans driving V8 7 litre cars in the 1960's when they had petrol at a few cents a litre. We had cheap gas, but no longer, we now need smarter heating like you are suggesting. Probably different heating sources for rooms depending on hours of use. Bathrooms - heating needed for 10 minutes per day. Bedrooms - heating needed for a couple of hours per day 🤔 I think infrared sounds perfect for bathrooms 👌

Very interesting. I have a problem where our living room is above the garage, has a high celling and one wall that is mostly glass. I have done some work filling in gaps but if the wind blows just right its still a wind tunnel :( I'm almost tempted to ceiling mount an IR panel above the sofa. So what car did you go for?

Nigel, if you do go the wet rad/ towel rail route, I have a suggestion for heating them, which my father implemented in our 3 bed house, many years ago. Bathroom starts day toasty (water heats in early am). We dont have any solar, just a standard gas boiler with hot water cylinder. If you plumb your bathroom rad so that it gets heated water 'all the time'. Do this by having a separate circuit for bathroom which can be driven by your ch pump whether in ch or water heating mode. Maybe you could enhance this by adding trv to the rads - not tried this - might work.

We have removed radiators in home, your right do we need to heat a home to a lovely 21degrees. My bedroom has no heating now, we have an super electric blanket which we love. Economy of blanket is good. We keep snug while sleeping. Noticed a huge differance in costs. With energy prices we are looking more on why we need to heat a bungalow in every room when it's not actually being used. I even fitted a secondary double glazed unit in my sons bedroom, and what a huge benifit even though the room has a doubled glassed with special glass. His room does not even have any condensation on the glass any more. Because of fuel prices we have actually removed radiators in rooms that have wood burners and kitchens. So by doing this our lpg boiler works less and smaller water circuit to heat. I goes a far to say that I feel that we will benifit from Installing secondary double glazing on all our double glazed windows, it's going to make a huge differance in fuel costs. All this from. A trial in my sons room, less noise, no condensation now when his radiator is on and the radiator now cuts out more so using less glass.

Conducting a similar sort of test but in a well insulated outbuilding. Found that a 580w (I think) far infrared panel can heat it up much quicker than a 1200w halogen heater. Also the halogen couldn’t get it above 13 degrees in there whilst I find myself turning the panel off after 17 degrees on the panel as it feels much warmer than that in there. It’s confused me as I’m more impressed with it than I thought I would be, expected snake oil but got surprised.

The back of the door would be ideal and only activate when door is shut / occupancy sensor?

Difficult question to answer. Years ago we had a wall mounted fan heater. That warmed things up quickly but they are not silent, draw considerable power and can smell if dust has built up. Happy New Year and thanks for all the interesting videos.

Insolation with radiant barrier is the key to this type of hearing. Could also be ran a small solar setup.

Happy New Year Nigel and thanks for all your videos. I am at a crossroads with my home. I have dare I say it, an MG ZS Ev which has been brilliant and is so practical for our needs. I have an order for the Long Range due in March, simply because it offers so much extra. My mind tells me somehow I could utilise the 2.2kwh Vehicle to Load as battery storage/feed to my house?? I use Octopus Go Faster 5p and 14.2p although my contract changes End Feb. I am contemplating solar panels approx 4kwh on East(ish) facing roof and 6 KWh on West(ish) facing rear of my roof. Battery storage?? I currently use Gas for Radiator central heating. Like you I want to change for environmental reasons but at the same time be reasonable cost effective. Electricity will continue to get greener and it has advantages in simplicity and control. I think particularly in bathrooms, electric under floor heating as a base heat on a timeswitch. Thin film foil is very cheap and can be put under vinyl laminate, then as you say with infrared Panels to maybe heat on occupancy sensors. Dumping my gas supply will need a great deal of thought? Keep up the good work and ignore negative comments.

I'm beginning to find that IR panels work more effectively on the ceiling. The amount of energy they radiate is a function of their temperature, when mounting them on the wall they convect some of the heat away and take much longer to reach an optimal temperature. When mounted on the ceiling they bathe in a pool of their own warmth and get hotter quicker. I've bought a couple of cheap 500W heating panels and I'm testing them in my office/workshop and bedroom. The office/workshop one is ceiling mounted (albeit the ceiling is at 22°) and reaches 95-100°C within about 20 minutes. The one in the bedroom is mounted vertically and struggles to get to 85-90°C in the same time. In the Autumn when the temperatures drop it'll be easier to do a more empirical test of how effective they are.

Inferred Panel on the ceiling would be good I have one white and it’s aluminium gets hot and it’s on a room sensor comes on when I go in that your answer.?

HI Nigel, the problem with infrared heat panels is they heat objects and not the air, they only become effective when on for a while and have heated their surroundings to radiate heat back. We have infrared heat panels, ceiling mounted in the office at work about 8kw on thermostats, we are taking these out and putting 3x 1800w wall mounted ATC lifestyle oil filled electrical radiators in. these should heat the air an not the floor, desks. Ecovolt do a oil radiator for the bathroom, these are 600w with built in timeclock, thermostat and wifi and can be controlled by an app. might be worth a look, they use full power to heat the room then use less than half to maintain the heat.

have you tried using an IR sensor & / or timer to operate the IR panel whenever you are in the room ?

ASHP set on minimum (35C - cop remains at 5) with a thermostat on the outside of the house, trickle charging your house with heat when it gets cold outside. Bathrooms need high power IR to be responsive and on for a short time. Living rooms need lower power and be on for longer. A fan heater can be used to get up to temp for a couple of minutes in any of the rooms. Consider heated seats and clothing. Use Alexa to say "Alexa...bathroom or bedroom" heats up before you get there. Job done.

Brilliant video & makes for a good debate. I personally think background heat is the way forward with 1 point of actual hot heat in the house. So small heaters in each room & a hotter living room?

I fitted 1 panel for extra heat. I'm electric storage heating. They're a very interesting product but so many reviews say they are rubbish due to how they work. They really do need to be aimed at where you want to sit. Rather than heating whole room. Ceiling mounted one above the sofa, or in your case above the toilet. Have a powerful enough one and you don't need to leave it on. But it wouldn't heat the floor. I dont actively heat the bathrooms at all. Not worth it for few mins. Different if people spend ages in the bath I suppose. Storage heater in lounge on octopus go. Leave doors open and that heats lounge/kitchen hallway and bedroom. Spare room and bathrooms no heating, doors closed. A 100w panel above sofa for extra heat late evening when the temp outside is in negative numbers. Long term when retrofitting/have enough money I would absolutely go heat pump and underfloor heating. Or cheaper option electric storage heaters wonder if theres any smart ones where they predict how much solar you will generate during the day and can dump that into them, as long as tariffs like octopus go stay. With solar and if you already have normal radiators fitted, then an electric boiler like the Zeb boiler would be worth it 40kwh of energy. Dump excess solar in during the day top up with cheaper economy 7 energy at night. Trouble with keep chasing the cheap option is it's expensive just in smaller chunks. That's already 400 on these 3 panels, let alone installation cost. Then several more hundred on oil boilers. Doesn't take long to be at several K cost, and still not have a decent solution.

Why not add background heat tube? Or electric towel rail/warmer?

We used a Timeguard switched fuse outlet to get power into our bathroom for the electric towel rail. The software is poor and it does not wotk with anything else but I can set up a schedule or overide via my phone.

I don’t think you can beat an electric fan heater for volume v time, my understanding is the infra red panels are very directional, so possibly stand in front of one and one on the ceiling. By what you say, you need a cork tile or something to keep your feet happy or you will never be comfortable. Good luck for the coming weeks!

thanks for another great video . could you use smart heating control ? we have fitted one and now got our home in 8 zones so turn on what rooms were in only and can set times to come on off etc saved about 50% on heating cost all ready as we dont heat rooms were not in ie kids rooms when there at school or when were not in etc had home at 19.6 c average in dec for 35 pound the home is ok for us

Is it worth heating the cloakroom/bathroom?? Cost etc. - well you could just leave the door open to the hallway when it's not in use, then no separate heater needed..

Nice review of IR. When’s the mini reactor installation? 👍😂⭐️

Put an electric convection heater on the toilet closet. 1250 watts for 10 mins. They heat the room very very quickly. Have it turn on when people enter the room, and off when they leave.

Live in the South of England, never heat any room all year except when I will be in it for like 30mins - for which infrared is perfect. Ideally, ceiling mounted but we have 1 we just move from room to room as required with it 80% of time in 1 room.

You can buy a special 110mm hole cutter and hard plastic plugs to fit once you have run your cables from electrical wholesalers.

Difficult problem to solve when heat is leaking away at an appreciable rate. Presume the most efficient method is to heat on demand when you need it, which means very powerful heaters for the few times a day when you use it. Ideally, of course, you minimise the heat loss - Passivhaus so the room feels warm all the time.

Only heats objects, no air circulation, gets reflected off shiny surfaces like a sink or toilet, really only heats a human, but much more energy efficient. It’s like standing in the sun in winter then moving to a shadowed area the difference is stark. A good idea but the question is whether air temperature is important for comfort.

Great video. My gas boiler is 40 years old. I am holding out in the hope of government incentives to go electric. Interesting to hear your views on the far IR panels. My fixed tariff ends in January and my energy supplier is trying to persuade me to go to a very expensive two year deal rather than go on to the price capped variable tariff (not surprising because they will probably lose money). My guess is fixing things in the summer a better bet because prices are likely to be lower then. It does appear that wholesale gas prices have fallen quite a bit recently but that isn't being reflected in energy bills.

I hope it's the right thing, I'm just about to install IR panels throughout my house

integrate a HASSOS with a smart plug. helps a lot with automating and control.

Hi there I’m getting solar and battery. As I can’t get octopus go I haven’t got an electric car ! Would the octopus agile benefit me ? Loved all your videos there a massive help

My ASHP was installed in 2011 & was the right decision right for me. However, the significant outlay is only part of the puzzle: If not designed/sized correctly you can end up with not enough heat during very cold, snaps (just when you need heat the most!), if not installed/commissioned properly you may get reliability issues leading to breakdowns, poor performance or reduced life cycle. If you do have any problems, skilled, reliable & affordable A/C engineers are not as easy to come by as a good plumber/heating engineer. Air to water H/P (Daikin Altherma, Mitsubishi Ecodan etc.) are experiencing a huge push in promotion & surge in popularity from consultants/designers/manufacturers - but these are even worse in my experience because it relies on a good A/C company AND good mechanical company in order to correctly install & commission A2W systems - as well as diagnose them when problems inevitably occur.

How well insulated is the room? Stopping heat loss is also key, 350w of underfloor heating would be too much in that small room 200w would be more than sufficient and warm feet convince the head that you are warm all over.

Having lived next to a modern ASHP used for heating a swimming pool for the last 12 months I would be very careful about its location and your neighbours. I eventually through legal action got my neighbours to relocate their pump to between their detached garage and house with sound shuttering . Understandably we are not on the best of terms now. My brother a Building Surveyor who does a lot of work for education authorities had to commission an additional noise hutch for one school pump at a cost of £15,000. I think my next house move would need to have south facing roof space (as now) and probably retrofitted electric underfloor heating. I agree with John Tisbury these panels are best ceiling mounted apparently a popular method in modern schools. Will properties with south facing roofs have a price premium in future I wonder ?

ceiling mounted (white) panels might be a better solution ?

The ceiling is the best place to mount them,

Eat good food and stay fit and you don't feel the cold much for those brief visits... and if you need more time in those rooms accasionally just turn the heating on 30m before you go in....

Would it not work better on the ceiling, Pointing down?

I’m about to have IR panel heaters throughout the house. We have no gas and have an old oil boiler that needs replacing. This is the last fossil fuel I use as we are lucky enough to have two EV’s and battery mower etc. A battery and PV will supply cheap electricity most of the time. Should be free for half of the year. A big experiment, but a back of an envelope calculation indicates that the interest on borrowing money for all this should be half as much as the money saved (including electricity for the EV’s) With a much lower carbon footprint. We need to experiment with all these ideas as we will not be able to use gas for space heating forever.

How big do these IR panels go to? 350W seems very little..

What about air to air heat pumps (i.e AC) as a space heating solution? Considerably cheaper than air to wait (air source), you would however need a different solution for hot water.

For cutting access holes in chipboard check out the superrod floor cutter - cuts a rebate around the hole for a steel plate. You can see it in action here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FTy9fuQJDlw.html

I've only just had the time to watch this episode, so I don't yet know what you have decided. My thoughts while watching, was that I thought your placement and your own indecision of how to align the panel for aesthetic reasons on a wall, may have clouded an opportunity to consider mounting these panels where you wanted the panel to radiate, such as mounting them on the ceiling. This would of course radiate heat to the floor and the placement could be tailored to suit. With regards to the on/off parameters, could you find a way of integrating the Infrared panels into the same way the Eddi deals with heating your water, or at least a wired solution to come on with the light switch, so it is only in use in a Bathroom, when someone needs to use the Bathroom, just a thought.

What if you put a mirror on the opposite wall/door and angled it down to the sink/toilet, would that reflect the heat downwards?

Why heat a room when not being used? I live in a 2up 2down terrest. I don't have central heating so I installed air to air heat pump back in 2000. The unit sits in the landing and I open the doors that I want heating. If having a bath. I turn on the heat pump open bathroom door to warm up and landing. Then turn off when finished. After watching you, I am thinking of fitting a high infrared heater and angle it down above door pointing towards the bath, controlled by a remote switch to turn on n off as and when I need it.

Did I missed the announcement that you have ordered a Polestar 2 in white?

You haven’t mentioned stopping damp and mould. Heating and cooling will encourage both. Also heat will move from hot areas to cold ones, through walls etc.

I use one the old type in my office. But the worry about cancer.The bar heaters are the same infrared. Heat is heat it's what it cost to make.

I think the problem is with the height of the installation. You probably want to install it on the ceiling given the shape and size of your bathroom. You definitely don't want to/need to leave it on all the time. Only turn it on when you are actually in the room, that's one of the main benefits about it - instant heat.

With thermostats on your radiators they only come on when the room drops to a certain temperature. Out at work during the day and have it off at night it's only on 8hrs a day.

Why don't you setup a timer to switch the bathroom heating on just before waking up in the morning, before the regular shower time in the evening? And, then, otherwise just when you are visiting the bathroom using a manual switch or a motion detector.

9:50 I heat my house not only for myself but for the health of my walls too: an surface temp of over 15°C on inner walls prevents condensing humidity on the wall and therefore avoids mold.

Hi Richard, are you saying you aren’t allowed power points in a bathroom ?!

Wouldn’t mounting it on the ceiling be better heating the coldest point on the floor, and then that heat would rise. Also if it’s 85 degrees your not going to accidentally burn yourself on it if it’s on the ceiling. The other point is by not heating that room the heating in the other rooms will work harder as the cold room will be drawing some of the heat.

I have an inexpensive infrared roll up wall hung picture heater. It uses 450 watts and has such a low thermal mass that it feels like sunshine as soon as it switches on.

Defo needs to be ceiling mounted. Better with the large white ceiling panel ir heaters

How about an underfloor system on a timer ?

It won't heat the room, it heats objects/a person. Mount on the ceiling and have it turn in on with sensor

I believe that the infrared radiation travels about 2.4 metres. Measure the height of your ceiling. If 2.4 or less put on the ceiling, else put on the wall. Unless it’s a towel rail of course... never point them at a window as that won’t work at all. I’ve got a portable one to try and it’s really good.

Can Infrared panel be used with motion sensors?

Herschel make infrared panels which auto turn on by room sensor, sounds ideal for a rooms not used much.

You have more options than just panels - how about trying an infrared tube mounted over the door - more discreet and directional to the floor/toilet. And yes why heat something you just don't use unless there is a damp issue. And focusing on wall mounting is counter to what I've seen and the main arguments underlying their optimal use - as in ceiling mounted and aiming down to heat the floor.

Looking at my graph my biggest bug bear is my American fridge freezer, well we have a chest freezer in garage as well. I reackon if I did not have them my bill would be so much cheaper

with regards to comfort, it depends where you are and what you have at your dispense. In Zimbabwe we woke up in cold Winter and heated water over a fire or cooker and washed in a cold bathroom or open areas and then got on with our day. in the UK, why not? why should you not heat you bathroom in the winter? it's up to you. but even here not everyone can do it and very soon, if that energy crisis gets worse, most of us will be struggling with energy.

I'm struggling with what to move to for electric heating. Whether I use electric radiators or ir panels, I have a horrible feeling I'm going to need a load of electrical work to do. And I'd still need a way to heat hot water for bath and shower. In theory I could replace straight to electric boiler but I can find any that are going to cope with the direct bath and shower requirement. Plus I think heating water to heat a house can only use more energy than direct heat to a room so I'm flummoxed. Whatever I do I think I'm going to end up having to get a mixergy hot water tank put in, and there's not really anywhere for it to go Ahhhhhhh