The Challenge
Here is a story about how infrared office heating meant happier, more productive staff and a silent, energy efficient heating system.
The office is located in a converted Georgian town house situated in central London. The building is connected to the mains gas supply and heated by a gas boiler and a ‘wet’ central heating system. The boiler is located in the basement at the front of the building whilst the main office (with two partitioned smaller offices) is situated at the rear. The loss of heat from the hot water as it travels from the boiler to the office, was such that the radiator temperature was not enough to effectively heat the office space.
The business tried to overcome the inefficient heating by installing four wall-mounted 4kW combined heating and air conditioning units. However, these turned out to be noisy and created a very stuffy environment making the occupants feel lethargic after a short time.
The electric heaters also created convection currents which sucked-in cold air through the old sash windows at the end of the main office, making the adjacent desks unusable on cold days.
The challenge for the business was to find a form of heating which was not going to cause a major upheaval to install, would improve their staff’s thermal comfort and allow all desks to be used, did not take up any wall space (as this was needed for tall filing cabinets), was silent and would reduce the heating cost.
