Infrared Panel Heaters

[Russell]

Does anyone have any experience/thoughts on these?  There's been quite a lot of exposure recently, mainly it must be said on Fully Charged, and they look as though they might be a good solution to reducing gas usage.  Herschel look well thought out with sophisticated control systems but there are cheaper available from Screwfix/Toolstation and so on.

How well do they work?
Are they as economical as suggested?
Is there a difference between the cheaper ones and the more expensive ones (apart fom control systems)?
Can they be used as a spot heater or do they work better when maintaining a temperature?

Thanks

[MikeFromLFE]

I asked a similar question here quite some time back, but can't find the thread.

The advice /at the time/ was that they were an expensive non-starter.
They heat the body, not the room - which might be what your use case requires.

I still think that as gas prices increase, this technology may well have a niche place in domestic settings. They are unobtrusive and becoming less expensive to buy.

[Russell]

Sort of not what I was wanting to hear although there's some positive in your comments.

Yes, body heating is what we were looking for, our north facing room that is used in the evening is often cool as most of the house benefits from thermal gain which doesn't get to the front.  Also our daughter's flat, old stock, 3 outside walls and a large single glazed sash window could benefit from body heating as she works from home most of the time.  We both use oil filled rads which work, sort of.

Although I thought infrared heated the objects in the room, bodies included, rather than the air as in convection heaters so the building structure warms up.

We might try a cheapy one to see how it works.

[MikeFromLFE]

I started a thread - now I've found it  - in October 2016. So if you search for "far infrared" you should find it as well.
In the end, based on that thread, I upgraded my radiator thermostats to programmable ones (and since then, the upstairs ones are now app controlled smart thermostats). The storage heater and small portable electric fire have gone.

I'm considering an 'electric throw blanket' as a birthday gift for my daughter who has a flat with a wet electric central heating system/

[aidan.f]

The electric throws are good but you need to be static, I suppose heated gilets would be more practical if you are sitting using a pc

[Canardly]

My only experience of infra red was with internal wall mounted radiant bar heaters that promised much. They resulted in hot heads and cold feet.