Affordable, green electric heating alternative to heat pumps

Low-carbon heating is today’s gold standard for heating systems, and the government recommends replacing fossil fuel gas and oil central heating systems with a heat pump instead of a gas, oil, LPG fired boiler. While heat pumps are ideal for modern housing built to today’s energy conservation, SAP and heat loss standards, they are harder to install in older council owned housing stock, the majority of which is either flats, apartments or maisonettes and built prior to 1999.

Although heat pumps could be installed into old Victorian and pre-war properties, they are often ineffective due to the poor energy efficiency of the building. The biggest challenge for older housing stock and small flats built pre 1986, is how to make existing homes suitable for low carbon heating and provide the best alternative to meet the EPC rating, Eco-Design energy efficiency regulations and renewable energy targets set out in Part L of the Building Regulations.

Low Carbon, Eco-Design electric heating
With 78% of the UK’s energy use coming from heating systems, representing a massive area being targeted by the government for carbon emission reductions and with 39% of all greenhouse gas emission being generated from heating, low-carbon controlled electric heating is the way forward. An alternative is Eco-Design (Directive 2018 for Energy-Related Products (ErP)) electric radiators running on renewable energy or solar panels.

To ensure climate change targets are met, the UK has no option but to switch from gas, oil and LPG to low-carbon heating. Electric heating can be 100% CO2 free when powered by renewable electricity. The good news is the UK electricity grid is rapidly decarbonising and within 3 to 5 years electricity will be greener than gas, oil, and LPG. With government regulations now banning gas boiler installations in any new builds from 2025, new building regulations (SAP10) which come in force in 2021 will be far more favourable to the use of 100% direct acting Lot 20 complaint electric heaters for decarbonisation of heat.

Retrofitting solutions for housing stock
Replacing out of date gas boilers and inefficient storage heaters with IntelliHeat Eco-Design electric radiators allows greater control of heating requirements. With IntelliHeat’s iSense wifi electric radiators homeowners and tenants can choose when and where heating is required and control temperatures accurately to within one tenth of a degree. IntelliHeat electric radiators are fully accredited to new UKCA mark, E.A.C. Certification, CE Certification*, BS British Standards, European Standard (EN) and NF *** rated energy performance accreditation.

Individual radiator features include automatic room zoning, automatic occupancy detection, self-learning auto programming, ultra-fast heating response, and a user-friendly 24/7 programmable control system. IntelliHeat electric radiators use a modern, advanced energy regulated intelligent thermostat and can achieve the same output wattage as a typical 3kW storage heater yet uses up to 35% less energy. This saves money on running costs, maintenance and gas inspections and, in answer to the recent COP26 and climate change requirements, uses less energy and carbon-free renewable electricity.

For more info please visit www.intelligentheat.co.uk, email desk@intelligentheat.co.uk or call 0203 916 0000.