Cost Efficiency and Infrared
Did you know, houses with infrared heating are more energy and cost efficient than hot water pump heating?
For people who live in single family housing it is cheaper to heat the house with infrared than with hot water heating. This information comes from German research that is published in the journal of installation.
For example, the researchers compared underfloor heating systems that run on floor heat pumps with floors that are heated by means of infrared. They performed this experiment in both housing and laboratory settings.
The researchers also compared electric floor heating and infrared floor heating. After the experiments, it became clear that the consumption of energy when using infrared heat is 15 percent lower than with intelligently controlled electric underfloor heating. This difference is even greater with hot water pump heating
Furthermore, infrared panels are very useful in combination with solar panels, according to researchers. This combination ensures that less energy is used during the heating season compared to a hot water pump. It also supplies electricity outside the heating season, which can be fed back to the grid during that week. According to the researchers, an infrared system in combination with solar panels will be cheaper than a hot water pump in fifty years.
Other findings also emerged from the study. For example, infrared panels on the ceiling have the most efficiency, the transmission loss is lower and relatively little heat is lost because of the insulation. Therefore the temperature is lower in an infrared heated room. The difference with a room that is heated by a pump is on average 0.6 degrees.
Above all, the purchase cost of an infrared system is generally lower than that of hot water pumps and other electrically heated systems.