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In-slab heating
 For one room or the whole house, this type of heating has to be installed when building or renovating. As the name suggests, it is built into the concrete slab, with heating cables tied to the cement’s top reinforcing mesh before the slab is poured. In-slab heating enables you to place almost any type of floor covering over the slab and provides economical warmth 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The system is specifically designed for connection to OffPeak. During the periods of the day or night when cheaper electricity is available, heat is automatically stored in the floor. The heated concrete then dissipates background warmth evenly throughout the room.
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Under-tile heating
 Suitable for installation under almost any existing floor surface, including tiles, timber and fibro-concrete sheet, it is made up of a very thin heating element which is preattached to a self-adhesive heat resistant mat. It should be noted that this is not designed to warm the room: it is specifically designed to take the chill off tiles in areas such as bathrooms and is ideally used in conjunction with another form of heating. It can be used with a timer and thermostat.
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Ceiling heat
 Ceiling heat is the topsy-turvy version of underfloor heating. The filaments are installed above your ceiling plaster and the heat radiates downwards. Like their underfloor cousin, they can also be controlled on a timer or thermostat. Originally designed for cold Arctic winters, ceiling heating copes easily with our coldest winters.
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Overhead radiant heaters
 By far the most popular, either as a stand-alone bathroom heater or used in conjunction with other forms of bathroom heating, is the overhead radiant heater.
They are the most economical appliance to install because each unit includes an extractor fan, lighting and a heater. And the heat is instant. The heating globes in 3-in-1’s radiate warmth like the sun. They usually come in two sizes – either a two (heating) globe or four globe version. Turn two on when you need less heat or turn all four on for a nice toasty glow.
This compact heater can be installed sufficiently high enough to be out of reach of children and is particularly suited to positioning above mirrors or vanity units to prevent fogging and radiate heat downwards for personal warmth.
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Panel Heaters
The quiet, silent type
Electric panel heaters are unobtrusive, economical and highly functional. They are silent, efficient, versatile and good-looking and there is no fan to blow dust around which makes them ideal for asthma sufferers. They are also a great choice for bedrooms and bathrooms. But here’s something you probably didn’t know: most brands of panel heaters have the capacity to be networked together. It’s as simple as allocating one of your panels as the master and the others its slaves. For example, the panel heater you choose to be the master may be in your bedroom or kitchen. The other heaters – ‘the slaves’ – may be in children’s bedrooms, a study, bathroom or hallway.
Masterful touch
You can then control all heaters from the one heater by way of a master control. It sounds big but the control devices we looked at were actually quite small and simply clicked into a pre-allocated space in the back of the heater. With some brands this control device doesn’t even need wiring – the instructional signals are sent via an inbuilt radio transmitter (which we think is pretty clever). For a small capital outlay you can effectively create an intelligent, centralised heating system for the rest of your home.
What is it?
The master control device is basically a plug-in 24-hour digital timer that controls every heater in the house. You can program individual heaters to turn on and off at different times of the day or night. This is a particularly useful, and very efficient way of warming up bedrooms when you need them to be warm most.
For example, you can set your panel heater to the ‘comfort’ setting in the evening an hour or two before you usually go to bed. Your bedroom will then be toasty warm when you retire. It can be programmed to go into ‘economy’ mode while you sleep and then go into ‘comfort’ mode just before you get up so that the bedroom is nice and warm again when you get up – no dressing gown required!
Panel heaters come in various shapes and sizes to suit all situations – low, medium and tall. You can get convection/radiant models – for a ‘soft’, ambient heat – or radiant models that add an element of directional heat that you can feel.
And when you’re already on the Aurora Heating Discount, it’s reassuring to know that you can include panel heaters onto your existing discount rate.
If you would like more information on networking panel heaters, contact your Aurora Preferred Suppliers.
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Pros
- Excellent for asthma and allergy sufferers – no fans therefore does not blow dust around.
- Practically maintenance-free because of no moving parts.
- Totally silent operation.
- Relatively inexpensive to run when connected to the Aurora heating discount.
- Easy to install, just about anywhere.
- Excellent for bedrooms and hallways to take chill out of the air.
- Added convenience when timers are installed.
Cons
- Not usually practical as a stand alone heater for a living area, unless the living area is quite small. For larger areas, more than one panel would be needed which could be detrimental if limited on wall space.
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Radiant strip heaters
Radiant strip or 'infra-red' heaters mounted on the wall are safe and effective for personal warmth in bathrooms.
Operating on the same principle as the portable radiator, the strip heater provides ample short-term heating in small rooms and being wall mounted is safe for children or pets. It has the advantage of not creating cold draughts in the bathroom that may be caused by fan heaters. Radiant strip heaters are also a good accompaniant to under-tile heating.
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