Buying guide
Portable Heaters
Things to consider when buying a portable heater
Portable heaters are great for keeping the chill off a room in the warmer seasons when it's not quite cold enough to put on your heating, or are ideal to use in a pinch if your heating starts playing up in the depths of winter. But considering what type of heater to purchase can quickly become overwhelming. This handy guide will help eliminate the jargon and help you decide what heater is best for you and your family.
Where are you going to use it?
Where you are planning on using your portable heater will determine which type to purchase. For example, if you intend to use it in a garage or workshop, you will require a more robust product that has a dust filters like those incorporated in the RUG3TS. But for small bedrooms, a compact heater like the Eco Chico is ideal. If you’re after a heater for general use in living areas, you have a wide choice of all around heaters: fan and ceramic, convectors and radiators.
What type of heat do you want?
There are three main types of heat produced from portable heaters: fanned, radiant and convicted.
Fan heaters draw air over a heating element quickly by using a fan to then propel the warmed air out. Radiant heaters create rays of energy that convert to heat once it hits and is absorbed by the body or object, similar to the warmth you feel from the sun, whereas convector heaters heat up the air around you and push it out into the room. The optimum heat type for human comfort is actually a blend of 80% convected and 20% radiant heat, so look for a heater that features a mixture of both technologies like our oil-free eco portable radiators.
How do ambient networks that use in-apartment heat pumps work?
Ambient networks typically consist of in-apartment water-to-water heat pumps connected via a central loop to a central plant. Each heat pump uses ambient water from the central loop to provide heating, hot water and even cooling into the apartment. For domestic hot water use, the heated water is stored in an unvented, integrated cylinder that sits below the heat pump module in the apartment, whilst the heating circuit could use emitters such as radiators, fan coils or underfloor arrays.
How do I know what capacity fan coil I need?
Working out what capacity fan coil unit you need requires a lot of factors to be taken into consideration from the outset of a project, including solar gains. These include building orientation, geographical location, envelope construction materials and infiltration alongside internal gains such as lighting, equipment and occupancy. These will have to be considered with any potential plans to install solar shading, as they all have an impact on the predicted performance of a building.
How to correctly size an ambient loop heat network using diversity factors
As their name suggests, ambient loops operate at significantly lower temperatures than traditional communal high temperature heating systems. This means that a different approach is required when sizing the ambient loop distribution system. Calculation of such systems follows a procedure where diversity is used to determine the design flowrate for a development. It also determines the sizing of pipework and circulation pumps for an ambient communal network solution such as the Zeroth Energy System. The in-apartment flowrates required for the selected size of the Zeroth Heat Pumps can then be calculated.