Could Infrared Heating be the Secret to Smashing Your Net-Zero Goals?

Introduction

As more businesses aim to reduce their carbon footprint, infrared heating offers a compelling solution. This article will explore how infrared technology works with renewable electricity, reduces energy consumption, and minimises heat waste—making it a potential game changer for the goal of net-zero or low-carbon emissions.

Carbon Emissions

Net zero gained global prominence following the Paris Agreement, which commits countries to limiting global warming and balancing greenhouse gas emissions with removal efforts.

Conquering your heating is a key factor in being able to achieve your net zero goals as it is one of the largest sources of energy use and fossil fuel consumption.

Reaching our net zero goals for the coming years is important for businesses and environment-conscious homeowners alike because carbon dioxide is the foremost greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere by humans, making carbon emissions a leading factor of global warming.

Reducing your carbon emissions is both good for the environment, the economy and human health.

Comparison

Log Burner

A standard log burner (5kW) burns wood as fuel, creating roughly 0.35kg in carbon emissions per kWh.

When used 8 hours a day, at a rate of 5 days a week for 30 weeks a year, a 5kW log burner heater will create roughly 2,100kg (2.1 tonnes) of carbon emissions per year.

Oil Burner

Similarly, a typical 5kW oil burner burns oil as fuel which creates roughly 0.26kg per kWh, or 1500kg per year when used for the same amount of time.

Warm4less Infrared Heater

On the other hand, a 2kW infrared heater (which would replace 5kW of convection heat) would create 0.19kg of emissions per kWh, or 456kg per year when powered by the grid.

Please note it is unlikely that an infrared heater will be powered on the entire time.

Renewable Energy

In some countries, the grid uses a combination of coal, gas, imported fossil fuels and renewable energy , meaning that the grid electricity may still carry carbon emissions.

The other option is to use a from of renewable energy. Using solar panels and/or a home battery alongside infrared panels allow you to use rechargeable stores of personal electricity (which is why it’s called renewable energy) instead of relying on the grid’s power.

Solar panels directly convert sunlight into electricity without the need for any fuels like coal or oil, so they don’t emit any greenhouse gasses at all, including carbon emissions. Similarly, home batteries just use stored electricity which means they can work together with solar panels to build up plenty of electricity to power your heaters (and entire property.)

Reduced Heat loss

Traditional central heating systems, like a wet radiator system, heat a room by taking in cold air and circulating it as hot air.

The downside of this is that it doesn’t heat any surfaces in the room, so any built-up heat is prone to being lost almost immediately to:

• Draughts
• High ceilings
• Frequently opening doors

Turning the heating up when it’s draughty; losing heat to empty unused high ceilings and allowing air to flow from room to room are all sure-fire ways of pointlessly wasting energy and creating CO².

Infrared heating works slightly differently. Instead of heating the air, infrared heaters radiate heat in the form of infrared radiation (it may sound scary, but this just means infrared rays heat you up like the sun – only without the harmful UV rays.)

Even your own body heat is infrared radiation, explaining why infrared heating feels natural to the skin.

Rays are fired out, bounce around the room and heat everything they hit. This means people, walls, flooring, etc, will all warm up. The air also comes up to temperature as a by-product through convection.

With the right infrared system, leaving doors open is no problem. Infrared rays bypass the air, so the heat can’t be swept away through open doors and windows.

Similarly, they can be focused on a specific area within a room; if you only use the bottom 2m of your 7m tall office, you can specifically heat the bottom 2m while completely disregarding the rest of the space.

That’s much better than creating unnecessary emissions to heat the void space above an open-plan office.

Minimal Maintenance

If you were to look inside an infrared panel, you would find a heating element, insulation and just a little bit of wiring. There are no moving parts, spinning fans, parts to be maintained, pipework, boilers or pumps.

Your carbon emissions will likely reduce when you switch to infrared and you will save money on your maintenance costs.

Conclusion

Thanks to being a radiant heat, infrared heaters are unique heaters that cut through the air to heat you directly, letting you feel comfortable at lower air temperatures.

You see the benefits of effective low-wattage heating, greatly reduced carbon emissions and cutting costs when fully optimised, all while being easy and convenient to control.