How to keep warm without turning on the central heating is now getting serious. Ok so we have all thought about not turning on the Central Heating or the Night storage heaters as all far too expensive. Not only that, every time the door is opened out fly the Pound notes. Unfortunately hot air is very fluid. We are hunting for an alternative to central heating on those chilly nights when the extra jumper, thermals, rug, sheepskin slippers etc etc are just not enough.
Some of us have wood burning stoves – which is very helpful – but watch out for the fumes, and make sure the room is well ventilated.
There are many small heaters for sale, some are very low cost, but most of these involve hot air being blown about which is not efficient.
The answer, in our opinion is the portable infrared panel.
Why infrared and what is an infrared panel? Infrared panels are thin white panels with stabilising feet which are plugged into a 13 amp socket. The panels radiate heat, just like the sun, and the heat warms objects including people and animals rather than heating air. For example if the panel was set up in front of a fireplace or similar location pointing towards people sitting on a sofa then the sofa, people on the sofa and the wall behind the sofa would absorb the radiated heat. The heat is not blown away, there is no moving air involved so no dust circulating the room.
The important thing is that infrared panels do not use a lot of energy compared with other heaters.
The panels take about 5 minutes to reach full heat, and are hot to the touch, about 90 degrees centigrade (so do not move when ON), they plug in and can be controlled via a basic thermostat and through the Smart Life App connected via wifi which has timing and thermostatic options.
We offer 3 models: Herschel under desk heater 220 watts (unfortunately out of stock until Nov 2022), the Herschel Portable 500 watt, and the Herschel portable 800 watt. The higher the wattage the higher the cost to run, but on the up side the bigger the heater then a larger area can be heated. Why heat all the rooms with central heating when you spend most of the time in one room – that’s the benefit of the single portable infrared heater and the way to keep warm without central heating.
From the 1st October 2022 we will be charged for Electricity at a new rate (if not on a fixed rate deal) on our OVO Economy 7 tariff we will have to pay 38.94 pence for a daytime kiloWatt hour and 20.94 pence for a Night kiloWatt hour (night being midnight to 7am). A kiloWatt = 1000 watts.
So think carefully about the electricity used – if you buy the 500 watt portable heater it will cost approximately 19.5 pence for each hour that it is ON. Conversely our new Gas rate will be 10.45 pence/kWh so to have the Central Heating on for one hour with a 24kW Combi boiler would cost £2.51 per hour. With £2.51 you could run 12 x 500 watt Herschel Portable heaters for an hour.
Think on this, the cost to make a mug of tea for ONE after 1.10.22 An average powered 2500 watt kettle takes 45 seconds to boil enough water for one mug of Tea. At 3600 seconds per hour this takes 1/80 of an hour. Which is equivalent to about 0.5 pence @ 38.94 pence kWh, the kettle is rated at 2.5 kW so the cost is 2.5 x 0.5 p = 1.25 pence per mug of tea – seems quite cheap. 2 people working from home at approx 8 mugs of tea/coffee between them from dawn till bedtime = 10p per day x 365 = £36.50 a year. Don’t forget to add the tea bag cost :-), add the milk, then the sugar, then wash up in hot water – As for the coffee machine well …….
Herschel portable infrared panels are great for the Garden office, garden room, and attic room. If you are able to control the heaters through wifi and the Smart Life app then you can operate these heaters super efficiently. Remotely switch on your heater half an hour before you get to work in your garden office and hey presto all toasty for when you arrive. Remember do not position the heater behind a solid object as the object will absorb all the heat.
