Help pls! Infra red heating system? (esp. Galion built house)

[Daisydoesnt]

I'm wondering whether anyone has any recent experiences with infra red heating systems please? We're house hunting and have seen a new build that ticks all our boxes: it's absolutely lovely. The one issue that we've got is the heating system. It's a very smart house and they really haven't spared any expense (Neptune kitchen, beautiful limestone flooring etc etc) so we're finding it odd they haven't gone for underfloor with an air source heat pump. From the finish (and price tag!) it just doesn't look like they're done it for cost saving reasons.

On the website it says the house: "benefits from a state of the art electrical infrared eco heating system including an in-roof solar system installed on the garage". As we understand it the infra red panels are built into the walls.

We're getting in contact with the developer Galion to find out more (manufacturer, why they've chosen the system) but wondered if anyone had any experiences good or bad please? What they are like to live with? Easy to use? Economical?

Thank you.

Link to house in case it helps: TIA

new build with infra red heating system

I haven't encountered it, but my starting point would be to be dubious. Ultimately it's electrical heating, and the problem with that will be the running cost. All electrical heating is 100% efficient whether it's an infrared panel or a £20 convector from Argos. However you use electricity to heat your home, you need to the same amount of electricity to raise the temperature of a room from 16° to 21°. There's a lot of pseudo-science written by marketing people trying to con people who don't have a qualification in physics into believing that their fancy electric heating is somehow cheaper and more efficient than others, but it's an very expensive mistake (especially at current prices) to be taken in.

You can save money on running costs using solar electricity and it looks like that house does, but it won't take much off the bill. The only other way is to use off-peak electricity, but that requires storage heaters, which have plenty of problems of their own.

No idea about the heating, but what a beautiful house! It's the nicest new-build I've ever seen.

Thanks @DarlingBrother1. We don't understand it either and my DH's starting point is equally one of disbeleif! We gather that the theory is that the infra red doesn't heat the air, but just "you" - they equate it to the way that the sun feels on a cold day when it comes out from behind the clouds. Sounds very odd to us.

What seems so weird is that they have gone for top notch on everything else so why cut corners or fit a dodgy heating system? Would be very disappointing to walk away because of this when everything else about the house works for us (and we've been looking for nearly two years). But we don't want to be saddled with a crap system which won't be easy to replace with U/F or regular rads.

Thanks Waltzing! We were so surprised how much we liked it and it was even nicer in the flesh 🙂

Agree with PP that a load of twaddle is spouted by the marketing people who then become quite evasive when you ask for hard facts and figures. Sadly the developer might have fallen for the bullshit too as obviously it is a lot cheaper to install.

I am not sure what I'd do in your situation tbh, as there may be other suckers who aren't as canny as you, willing to pay the asking price. But I'd be tempted to demand independent evidence of running costs + comfort from an occupied house with the same system.

Failing that you just have to assume running costs based on direct electric ie at least 3x the costs for doing the same house with gas or a heat pump (costs for these are currently roughly the same in a decent new house, heat pump potentially slightly cheaper especially as you avoid the gas standing charge).

You could try to negotiate a discount based on the net present value of the running cost savings you are missing out on over say 15 years - based on the fact that a heat pump system would save > 2/3 heating and hw costs versus direct electric.

I'd be very sceptical, we had infrared heaters once at work when the heating had broken down, fine when you're directly in line with them but freezing everywhere else. Surely you actually want the fabric of the building to be heated as well, to protect against damp and the like?

I expect you looked at the EPC?

Handy for Glastonbury

I agree that the developers have been taken in by bullshit from the installers.

Is there gas available on the plot? I would regard the house as having no heating (because I really doubt that that system will be usable) and assess the price accordingly. If you could fairly easily have a gas boiler and radiators installed you're probably looking at a very manageable cost as a proportion of the purchase price. It's just a shame that you will end up with surface-run pipes and generally a less tidy installation than if it had been put in at the time of construction. It's also a shame that the house and especially those floors are begging for underfloor heating but that would be prohibitively disruptive at this stage.

I went to a church that had had these installed - cheaper than getting boiler and pipes etc done and it was meant to heat the people rather than the (huge) space. It was like being in a toaster if you stood in the right place - toasty warm, possibly a bit too much, especially top half of body. But my feet were freezing cold and if you went a metre to either side it was also freezing cold, so would be a bit weird in a house setting?!

I have one in a back room and like it but we don't have gas here.

You need to know what kw they are. My big one is 600w so lower than say a 2kw oil filled one per hour. If you know that you can work out the approximate running cost per day.

If the house is very well insulated ten they may work well. A year ago I'd have said definitely have gas but things have changed a lot.
Are there solar panels to run them?

Thank you for all the comments everyone and apologies for the radio silence. @RidingMyBike I know exactly what you mean but think your experience sounds like infra red heaters which isn't what this is - it's very, very gentle heat like no more that you'd feel from a radiator in a room. When we viewed the house we wouldn't have known it was anything other than normal heating if the EA hadn't told us.

Anyway, we've seen a house we like better and as we would undoubtedly prefer air or ground source heat pump with underfloor hearing (what we've got now), we won't be making an offer. Thanks again all.

@Calmdown14 thank you very much, Yes there are but only two solar panels.

The house at the back of me is just having these installed. They've built a massive new extension. I was wondering what it'd be like. Given the money they're showering the house with I assumed infrared heating must be good?

They used to say the three important factors are location location location, in a new build I would not be unduly worried about the heating, insulation will be very high. Explore fully this infrared system before giving it a miss.