Existing Situation
To mark the Haven House Children’s Hospice’s 15 year anniversary, they underwent a major refurbishment to their existing building to improve care and staff facilities. The transformation of their existing ground floor offices to provide a cafe for staff and patients meant that the client required a new office building set within the Hospice grounds for the finance and marketing team who are vital in generating 80% of the Hospice’s income.
The Challenge
The new building was not connected to mains gas, so electric heating was the obvious choice. Electric underfloor heating was used on the ground floor, however, the restrictive build height meant this form of heating was not practical on the first floor. The large windows and the requirement to maximise floor space for desks and storage cupboards also limited the use of wall-mounted heaters.
The first floor had a cathedral ceiling (2.4m at the eaves to 3.9m at the highest point) ruling out standard convection heating as the warm air would just rise in to the ceiling void, creating convection currents and offering little/no benefit to the occupants, until it cools and descends towards the floor.
The Solution
ETHERMA LAVA Basic DM Infrared heating panels were installed on the pitched ceiling to keep the wall space free and ensure an even distribution of heat throughout the office.
LAVA Infrared heating works on the principle of solar radiation, directly warming the occupants. The infrared waves are absorbed by thermal mass (the ceiling, walls, floor, furniture and people) and gradually released back into the room as heat. This homogeneous heating of the office space results in only a small temperature gradient between floor and ceiling; preventing convection currents and therefore the loss of warm air in to the ceiling void.
As the infrared panels have no moving parts they are completely silent – a major benefit in an office environment. It also means they have a long operational life (20 years +) without any ongoing maintenance requirements.
An eTOUCH-eco wall-mounted, programmable thermostat was used to give precise control of the heating system and is key to saving operating costs and avoiding wasting valuable energy. This thermostat has intelligent control for completely automatic heating system optimisation and includes a self-learning function to ensure the ideal level of thermal comfort is delivered when required.
The infrared heating system is unobtrusive and proved straight forward to install. More importantly, the staff are delighted with their new environment.
The Tooley & Foster Partnership
The Solution in Detail
Four LAVA Basic DM 750 infrared panels were mounted on the pitched ceiling approximately 3 m above the floor. The infrared panels were installed on the same electrical circuit directly controlled by a wall mounted eTOUCH-eco programmable thermostat (switches max. 16 Amps). The Eco+ intelligent control guarantees smooth, completely automatic optimisation of the infrared heating system and saves energy. In total, 3kW of infrared heating was installed to heat the 63m2 open plan office with a daily running cost of just £1.95.
Product Benefits
LAVA BASIC-DM Infrared panel
- Very high proportion of radiation
- Large infrared emitting surface
- Lightweight design for easy ceiling mounting
- Pleasant room climate thanks to comfortable infrared radiant heat
- Magnetic field & maintenance free
eTOUCH-eco Thermostat
- Easy menu navigation
- 4 programmes: Home, office, timer and heating
- Self-learning function
- Energy consumption indicator
- Switching from summer to winter time is completely automatic
- Switchable between output control, underfloor, room or combi thermostat
- Temperature drop detection
- Eco-design guidelines compliant