Benefits of Radiant heat
- Less temperature is required to feel warm, so less energy is used. Using less energy saves you money AND helps the environment. Just think of the winter when the sun is shining and you go outside. The air temperature may only be just above freezing, but your exposed skin soon feels warm from the sun. This is why skiers often sunbathe at the tops of mountains in winter, with much skin exposed to the sun! The receptors in the skin's surface react very quickly to radiant heat; much more and much quicker than to warm/hot air. So having hot air circulating in your home is NOT the most efficient way of heating.
- Radiant heat also warms up the walls and furniture of a room and these too store the heat and radiate it out. The house shell and its contents are used as thermal mass and are then a store of heat. This means only top up heat is required. Compare this with an electrical immersion heater, which is well lagged. It is far cheaper to keep such a heater switched on, than to keep switching it on and off in the mistaken belief that you save energy. Remember how long a simple stone, which has been warmed by the winter sun, will retain its heat compared to a stone, which has been subjected to just hot air.
- Compare a 2 KW hair drier, a 2 KW iron and a 2 KW slim-line radiator from Suka They all require 2 KW of power, yet which one will heat a room for you? The Suka radiator, thanks to its storage capacity and sensitive thermostatic control (which measures the temperature at floor level), only requires approx. 15 minutes of electricity to provide 60 minutes of warmth. This heat radiated out over a large surface area will give you the most comfortable warmth compared to the hair dryer and iron!
| Cameron wants 10% CO2 cut by government depts |
| The Prime Minister, David Cameron wants 10% CO2 cut by all government departments within 12 months..... more... |