It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of having electric radiators in the home was seen as something quite eccentric. Now that you can do things like plug your car in to charge when you get home, the attitudes towards using electric to power and heat home homes have shifted dramatically.
With people ditching oil tanks and gas for electric as the primary heating source for the home, it helps to know about electric radiators and how to know if having them installed is the right move for your home. Luckily, this short article is here to highlight the essentials and some pitfalls of going fully electric. Hopefully, it will help you realise if having electric radiators is best for your home.
Electric radiators are NOT electric heaters
Let’s get the biggest misconception out of the way first. Electric radiators and heaters are two completely different things. If you have an electric heater that gets moved from room to room in the colder months, it’s going to work completely different from an electric radiator.
Electric radiators are designed to be installed and work exactly like a traditional radiator. They don’t have any electric coil with a cover and are meant to be treated just like a normal radiator. If you wanted something which is portable and can be moved around, you’d want to stick with a heater.
Electric Radiators give you greater freedom
If you can’t move an electric radiator, how can it provide you with more freedom compared to a regular radiator? It comes down to one simple feature electric radiators lack. Unless you’re buying a dual-fuel radiator (which I’ll talk about next), electric radiators never have to be plumbed into your heating system.
How does this give you greater freedom? You now have the ability to hang your radiator anywhere you like. We all have at least one room where radiators get in the way. Opting for electric changes this completely, as you can hang a radiator on different walls and at different heights. As long as you can have a plug socket nearby, you’re good to go.
Some electric radiators can be plumbed in
If electric radiators are independent, how can they be plumbed in? For those who want the best of both worlds, you can get dual-fuel radiators which have pipe entries as standard. Such a feature allows you to use the radiator as standard but also lets you switch to electric when needed.
A prime example of this coming in handy would be when you have this type of radiator installed in a room like the kitchen or living room; communal spaces where you might want to take a chill out of the air when you have people in the room.
Electric radiators can be synced to everything else
Although electric radiators are independent by nature, you can get smart valves which connect to your central heating. Doing so allows the electric radiator to turn on and off like all the others around the home if needed. If you don’t have a central thermostat or don’t know about Smart TRVS, I recommend reading up on the topic. Even having or two around the home can see fuel usage (and bills) come right down.
Get to know more
If you fancy seeing what electric radiators can look like in your home, I recommend visiting https://www.traderadiators.com/electric-heating. They have a fantastic range with some unique designs, including cast-iron & infrared electric radiators.
For anyone out there who is in the midst of fixing home heating, or weighing up whether to ditch your old system and go all-electric, I’d suggest reading this post on 5 Things to Consider in Buying a Hot Water System. And don’t forget you can get practical advice on improving every room of the home by reading the most recent posts on the Home & Kitchen section of the website.