Infra red heating

Chalked · Jan 8, 2015

I have a job to price, 4 new build, 3 storey houses with 1 bathroom and 2 ensuite.
i had riced for a system boiler, 210 litre pressurised cyl and rads.
electritian is now pushing the builder towards infra red panel heaters and electric heaters.
i understand how the heater panels will work, but hot water! They say you fit one to each bathroom, this will provide all hot water! They say it's about the size of an electric shower box and works from a 13 amp supply.

ive told the builder to stay clear, as simply physics would say you can't raise water temp that fast with so little energy.

has anyone else heard anything about these? I can't find anything on the web. Apparently the water heaters are due for approval in the uk in February, so little info about!

the company is e. Rads.
looking on line they seem similar to some made by logicon

BLOD · Jan 8, 2015

Filling a bath will take forever and the showers will be pants!
The new all singing electric rads are supposed to be pretty good but an unvented cylinder has to beat an electric water heater hands down on performance & running costs

bacon_sandwich · Jan 8, 2015

I have only installed an electric solution when gas is not available. Sure they are cheaper to install, but the running costs and comfort are not a patch and as mentioned already, filling a bath off a 13A supply is basically an immersion heater into a large tank.lol There are small under sink solutions that will do sinks and the like and I have used them and they are very good. but a bath is something else. I would expect the builder will have more difficulty selling a property with this heating solution, rather than a pukka central heating boiler, combi or system, running on gas.

Chalked · Jan 8, 2015

bacon_sandwich said:
I have only installed an electric solution when gas is not available. Sure they are cheaper to install, but the running costs and comfort are not a patch and as mentioned already, filling a bath off a 13A supply is basically an immersion heater into a large tank.lol There are small under sink solutions that will do sinks and the like and I have used them and they are very good. but a bath is something else. I would expect the builder will have more difficulty selling a property with this heating solution, rather than a pukka central heating boiler, combi or system, running on gas.

Completely agree.
looking at the heaters, they use (allegedly) half of the kw than a rad to hate a given space, but IMO gas is 1/3 of the cost of electricity per kw. So they will be more expensive to run ( if my maths is correct)