The Most Efficient Electric Space Heaters for Offices, Hotel Bedrooms and more…
Traditionally electric heaters have been ugly buzz boxes on the wall pushing dry heat around a room through a noisy cheap fan motor with little to no thought for cost or efficiency. Whilst in the large part this remains to be the case, there are other much cheaper to run more efficient and intelligent systems on the market today. It is the purpose of this article to introduce the reader to these systems and hopefully give some understanding on how these boxes of seemingly magical powers work.
“rather staggering efficiencies”
Due to their name they are largely overlooked, but a reverse cycle air conditioning unit (sometimes known as an air to air source heat pump) used for room heating can return some rather staggering efficiencies. For instance some units can recover enough latent heat from the outside atmosphere that they return an incredible COP (Coefficient Of Power) of 6. This basically means that they consume 1kW of electricity and give out 6kW of heating. In reality mainstream small to medium sized units will have a COP of between 3 to 4 (1kW in 3 to 4kW out), which still remains highly efficient whilst compared with traditional electric convector heaters having a COP of 1 (1kW in 1kW out).
So where do these seemingly magical gains come from? The heat within the atmosphere is the answer. Even with temperatures down to minus 20 degrees Celsius heat can be extracted from the atmosphere using the right type of heat pump.
“a box of magic”
Well you will almost definitely have a box of magic which operates on the exact same principle in your Kitchen. This is more commonly known as a Fridge or Freezer and works on the same principal as an air conditioning unit. The only real difference between the refrigerator in your Kitchen and an air conditioning unit with a heat pump fitted is that it has the ability to reverse the cooling cycle. This means where your fridge takes warm air from inside the fridge and transfers it to atmosphere, (so creating cool air inside the fridge), an air conditioning unit fitted with a heat pump has the ability to reverse this cycle so creating heat and cool as required into the controlled environment.
“Modern air conditioning units come in various guises including picture mounts”
Now anybody who as seen a wall mounted air conditioning unit may comment that by replacing an electric heater with an air conditioning unit you would just be swapping one “ugly buzz box” for another. Modern air conditioning units come in various guises including picture mounts, recessed ceiling cassettes, ducted systems, floor mounted and of course various types of wall mounted systems. Any new air conditioning unit should now be inverter controlled. This means that the fan speeds ramp up and down by demand allowing for extremely quiet running and optimum efficiencies.
So What Can I Save?
Air conditioning units in winter used for heating will typically return a 30 to 40% saving on conventional resistive convector type electric heaters. This can represent significant savings when heating areas such as offices, hotel rooms and the like where there is a prolonged call for heat. Taking a small office, burning 8 hours per day, 5 days per week and 50 weeks per year bills can be thousands of pounds for heating. Obviously making a 30 to 40% saving on electricity bills the units pay for themselves very quickly and would of course allow for much more comfortable summer time temperatures with the added advantages of the cooling cycle.
If you are interested in receiving a quotation or just simply would like more information regarding these units please contact us on telephone number: 01509 341971 or by email at: cgascoigne.co.uk.