Infrared heaters for shops

Building Type: Retail shop in a terraced parade
Concrete block & frame construction with limited insulation and flat roof
Ground floor – Double glazed shop front First Floor – Single glazed roof lights and windows

Why Involve Herschel?

• The client’s FM adviser was instructed to review how to reduce heating costs and provide more effective heating solutions for the retail estate
• Herschel were approached to see how their Far Infrared heaters could achieve this
• In this unit, the heating for staff and customers was not effective or sufficient. Staff were commenting that they were cold
• The first floor sorting room would only reach 5oc on colder days
• The main entrance is continually opened and closed creating challenges for heating the main shop floor
• Existing heating not zoned or thermostatically controlled
• Large amounts of air were heated for long periods at significant cost. A comfortably heated environment was still not achieved
• Client estimated existing heaters were on up to 9hrs per day
• Existing heaters create a maintenance problem across the estate with annual maintenance costs and a number of heaters needing to be replaced
• The subject property had one heater out of action on survey

Existing Heating / Estimated Additional Existing Heater Type Required

The Herschel Infrared Solution

• Install sufficient infrared heaters to create a comfortably heated environment
• Achieve this by heating the fabric of the building and increasing the thermal mass rather than just heating the air
• Heating the thermal mass will help maintain temperatures, even with the front door opening and closing, and enables the building to retain the heat for longer and radiate this back
• Control the Infrared heaters with Salus wireless thermostats to create three heating zones (Two zones Ground Floor, One zone First floor)
• Thermostats set to provide heating to 20oC for an estimated 6hrs per day for 180 days p.a.
• New infrared heaters were mounted next to existing heaters on the walls
• Client requested that existing heaters remained in place while testing the infrared heaters. Otherwise, the infrared heaters would have replaced existing heaters in the same locations or been installed close to them if the location was not appropriate
• Installation time was within 1 working day
• Estimates of improved efficiency and reduced costs for total energy consumed (see below)
• Improved comfort levels for staff and customers
• No maintenance or servicing of the infrared heaters once installed.

Energy Consumption Comparison and Estimate of Savings

Further Developments

The charity has now installed Herschel Infrared heaters in a number of other UK locations in Scotland, Greater London, East Anglia and the South Coast. A selection of Herschel heaters is being installed, depending on the store specification, including space heaters and Select suspended ceiling panels.
These units are being monitored for their energy consumption and to demonstrate the energy savings for Herschel heaters over the traditional convector heaters that were in place. The Herschel heaters offer additional benefits with no annual maintenance costs, improved comfort levels and flexible control and management of the heating system.
If the savings expected are realised, it is anticipated that the heating technology will be used as a core part of their energy savings initiative across the wider portfolio.

*Estimates from charity store and their FM adviser based on 6 hours of intended use for Herschel Infrared heaters for 180 heating days per annum
**Unit price assumed £0.11 per kW/h excluding daily standing charge. % Savings are rounded & all figures exclusive of VAT
*** (Using Carbon Calculator www.carbon-calculator.org.uk)

Background

A retail door and worktop supplier got in contact as they were looking for a solution to provide background heating. Their new retail showroom featured high ceilings and had open spaces with very limited wall space.  As such, there were several installation restrictions that needed to be taken into consideration with the specification.

Herschel Solution

Herschel specified Aspect XL2 heaters.   Five Aspect XL2s were installed to heat individual display booths. The Aspect XL presents an efficient heating solution for retail spaces that are in the public eye as it has a very stylish finish with zero light.  The Aspect XL2 is 1300W and the higher wattage of 1950W is available with the Aspect XL3.

More and more retail environments are choosing Herschel.  Given the natural feeling of warmth from infrared the Aspect XL has been chosen as the heating solution for a high number of familiar high street names.

Testimonial

Feedback from the owners is that the heaters were competitive to both buy and install.  They provide a very comfortable background heat in the space and running costs are affordable.