ZONE HEATING

Far Infrared has a substantial advantage over traditional methods of convective heating when it comes to heating by ‘Zone’.  Herschel heaters can be positioned in specific areas of a room or a ‘Zone’ without heating other areas within the environment.

This creates significant advantages that Far Infrared heaters has over traditional convective systems in zones and controls. Such as:

• Convective heaters can not heat specific areas or zones because once air is heated it moves, it rises and disperses uncontrollably. With Herschel Far Infrared you can target to heat specific areas.
• A central heating or convective system has to warm the entire volume of air in the environment until the average or set temperature is reached without control of where the heated air goes.
• To fill the area of the entire area regardless of whether it is used requires more energy – wasted energy!
• To heat a specific area/room/environment requires the entire system to be on. This will mean an increase in energy consumption and heat loss.  Heating with Far Infrared requires only the panel in the zone to be on.

This is a huge advantage when heating large areas such as a warehouse or offices.  Take the below example, Zoning was not achievable using a gas alternative which was being considered in this business case.  The use of a correctly zoned Far Infrared system suspended from above saved a greater amount of energy consumption than originally envisaged.

CONTROLS

There is a consensus within the heating industry that ‘Smart’ or ‘Intelligent’ control systems (as opposed to an individual thermostat controlling the whole system – often the case in many homes) should save, case by case depending, at least 5-10% of your overall energy consumption and costs.  With Far Infrared panels this can be even more effective.  It is even possible to integrate systems (wet system radiators and Far Infrared Panels) so the importance of controls in this situation must be able to co-ordinate all heating types together.

The other key advantage of utilising smart controls is because Far Infrared heat falls directly onto the objects or people to be heated.  This creates a greater level of comfort heating or feeling of comfort when heated, instead of heating the air around the person which can often create a feeling of stuffiness.

This also means that the mean radiant temperature around a person allows the environment to be controlled at a lower air temperature than traditional convective heating systems without it impacting on comfort levels.

Whilst here at H4Heat we recommend integrating a ‘smart control system’ to gain maximum efficiencies, Herschel panels can be used with existing controls or simple plug-in thermostats if preferred.