Do infrared heaters use a lot of electricity?

Far infrared is one of the most economical forms of heating on the market today. The conversion rate of electricity to heat is 98.5% so for every unit of electricity you use you get almost all of that back into heating. Most other forms of heating operate at around 50% efficiency, with some convection heaters like storage heaters being as low as 30%. This is because of the way the heater works, taking in air, warming it up and blowing it back out. This takes a lot of energy to do this.

If we take storage heaters as an example, we would typically replace a 2KW heater for a 700w far infrared heating panel. If we base this on current electricity pricing as of 2021, an average per kilowatt hour (Kwh) is 14p.

If we take 14p and multiple that by 2KW for a storage heater, you’d be paying around 28p an hour to run that heater. For an infrared panel at 700w, this would only cost you 9p an hour. If we take those two amounts and multiple that by 7 hours a day, 7 days a week and 26 weeks of the year, your total for a storage heater would equal £356.72, whereas your infrared heater would come out at £114.66 a year. That’s a difference of £242.06… for one heater!