Using the infrared panels

It is mid-October now; it is getting chilly. I often start my commute with gloves on! And it sometimes happens that I end it just in a shirt, but that is mainly due to the hills I encounter on the way. But that also means it can get cold in the house. I am still continuing my boycott of my gas boiler. I light my log burner a lot; I am really chuffed with my garage full of wood. But, of course, I don't have a log burner in every room. And sometimes I don't want to be cold in the rooms without one. So I have started using my infrared panels! So what are my experiences?

I have panels in my office, my kitchen in my bathroom. The idea is that they work quite fast; you just flip them on when you walk in, and a short while later you feel their effect. And when you leave again, you switch them off. That way you just only heat the rooms that you are actually in.

I have mainly used the panels in the kitchen when I had guests. The kitchen is also the dining room! And people have been comfortable in there. But sometimes I just flip them on there when I am cooking. It is quite snug quite quickly!

The panel in the bathroom is not fast enough to keep you warm when you are going to the loo. By the time you can feel the heat, you are done! But I have occasionally put them on when I am either having a shower or brushing my teeth. They are fast enough for that.

The panel in the bathroom 

I suppose the most important ones are the ones in the office. Sometimes I work at home for a day, if I have no contact hours with the students. And sometimes I just first work an hour or so at home, just to have a bit of quality time with the cat. And in the weekends I also sometimes need to use my computer. A household requires some admin! And, of course, I am a blogger. And it is nice to have these panels; if you are doing computer work, you are by definition sitting still. That office can be quite cold without heating! But with the panels on, it is quite nice.

The risk with these things is of course that you forget to turn them off when you leave the room. And that has indeed already happened twice! But I hope I have learnt from that, and it it will barely ever happen in the future. I won't say never; I am a flawed human, after all. But I didn't buy these things to be using energy for the cat’s violin.

So what is my verdict? I am really pleased with them! I would certainly do it again. I might get more. If I have to gut the office, then the spare bedroom will become the office, and then it would be nice if that would have panels as well. And they might be an idea for the master bedroom.

I don't think they are suitable for the living room and the landing; these have Victorian ceiling beams, so the only way of putting up a sizable panel is to obscure the beams. And I have gone through a lot of effort to have these in view! I have no desire to undo that. And I don't need to; both rooms have a log burner. So maybe all I really need is IR and wood!