Estimate How Many Infrared Heating Panels You Need For Your Living Room!
Posted by Chloe Maitland on 3rd Jul 2018
Because Infrared Heating is a fairly new technology, people may struggle when assessing how many panels they need for the different rooms in their home. Whether your home is poorly insulated or has been recently insulated, we can guide you in the right direction.
More specifically, we are going to be looking at varying sizes of living room so that we cover as many scenarios as possible.
The Basics Of Calculating How Many IR Panels You Need
In order to calculate how many Infrared Panels you need for your living room, you’ll firstly have to calculate the volume of your living room (multiply the length of the room by the width and multiply the result by the height). In order to have the corresponding results to our information, ensure that you’re measuring in metres so that the volume will be in m3.
The amount of watts you need per m3 is dependent on how well insulated your home is. Take a look at this table for a guide as to how many watts you’ll need:
| Level of Insulation | Watts per m3 Required |
| Poor insulation (home built pre-1930) | 30W per m3 |
| Moderate insulation (home built between 1930-1980) | 25W per m3 |
| Good insulation (home built post 1980 or hasn’t been recently reinsulated) | 20W per m3 |
If you want a more detailed explanation of this process, please feel free to take a look at our how to buy IR Heating Panels guide.
Example Of The Average Sized UK Living Room
Based on UK averages, the average sized living room is 4.8 x 4.8 x 2.5 making the volume of this room 57.6m3.
Let’s say this average sized house was built in 1975- this means that the house is moderately insulated and therefore 25W per m3 is needed.
Now that you have worked out how many watts are needed to heat your living room, you can begin to look at the type of panel set up you would like in your home.
Whether you choose to opt for a single 1200W Infrared Panel or two of our 700W IR Heaters which you can place at either end of the room, both will heat this living room efficiently.
Example Of A Below Average Sized UK Living Room
In this case, we’re going to be taking on a slightly smaller living room of 3.6 x 3.6 x 2.5m- the volume being 32.4m3.
Regardless of the fact this house was built in 1943- it was recently insulated resulting in it being very well insulated. Taking this into consideration, only 20W per m3 is needed within this living room. Multiplying the volume of the room by the required wattage gives us 648W.
Similarly to the first example, you have more than one option on how you decide to heat your room with our Panels. One of our 580W Panels would be extremely ideal- maybe you’d fancy a Custom Print in this size? Alternatively, two of our 595 x 595 350W IR Panels would be perfect for a good distribution of heat.
Example Of An Above Average Sized UK Living Room
Unlike the other two examples, this home is poorly insulated due to the fact it was built way back in the 20th century. After finding out the measurements of the room, we was able to work out that the total wattage needed is 1895W. It goes without saying that this room needs 30W per m3.
In this specific case, there’s no confusion that more than one panel will be needed to heat this room effectively. Either two 795 x 1195mm 900W Panels or three 595 x 995mm 580W Panels would do the job perfect in this instance.
Now You Know How!
We believe that calculating how many Infrared Heating Panels you need for your space is fairly simple. However, if you need any further assistance whether that’s figuring out how many panels you need or when it comes to ordering them, please give us a call on 0116 321 4121. Alternatively, send us an email to sales@suryaheating.co.uk. For all product updates and all things Infrared Heating related, check out our Facebook and Twitter!