Solar "Friendly" Heaters

[SauRoNZA]

So I have a wall panel heater in each bedroom which is pretty good at 400W a pop but then realised yesterday that my daughter's room which is the coldest for having two externals walls was actually doing jack ****.

Reckoned before I just go and replace it with another one, especially considering these things don't tend to last maybe I should now be considering other options that are more solar friendly and especially Smart.

I have a Generic Thermostat in Home Assistant which manages these so in a perfect world I would want a device that is smart in and of itself or at the very least automatically runs on it's last setting when turned on then I can just use a smart switch of some kind.

Preferably would want something mounted and not freestanding.

Should I be looking at infrared? Are wall panels heaters still the best option?

 

[Sinbad]

Your most efficient option is going to be an inverter aircon.
At the end of the day, whether it's a panel or an infrared heater it converts electrical energy directly into heat - so 100w of power = 100w of heating.
The aircon is 3-4x as efficient - so 100w of power in is 300-400w of heat out.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

We have the Milex infrared heater in the lounge and it works pretty well.

Has 4 levels from L1 - L4, L1 being the lowest and starts from 500W. Each level up increases by 500W. Think it can be wall mounted, but even if you use the tripod it has a failsafe that switches off when there's movement beyond a certain threshold.

We generally keep it on L2 on cold evenings, L3 if it's really cold and haven't had to go to the highest yet...

 

[Cius]

We started by putting in think pink and as a result hardly need heaters since doing that. House only really drops bellow 17 degrees if its a very extended cold front. I have a little AIM fan heater that can heat the room for changing in 5 min flat, and is solar friendly in that you can choose to have it on 1 of 2 settings. First one pulls 900W, second one 1800W. So if a lot is running I just put it on setting 1 to not trip the inverter. We almost never leave a heater on anywhere in the house.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Your most efficient option is going to be an inverter aircon.
At the end of the day, whether it's a panel or an infrared heater it converts electrical energy directly into heat - so 100w of power = 100w of heating.
The aircon is 3-4x as efficient - so 100w of power in is 300-400w of heat out.

That's our plan as well. But for direct heat nothing beats infrared. You feel it hitting you wherever you are in the room...