What Is the Difference Between Conventional Heating and Heating Film?

The difference lies in the path of the heat. Conventional boiler heating burns gas in one central place, the heated water travels through pipes to the radiators, and they warm the air. Heating film produces radiant heat directly from electricity in the floor, wall or ceiling of the room – there is no boiler, pipework, flue gas or chimney.

Why is it not enough to repeat the old solution?

When building, a huge number of decisions have to be made, from the floor covering to the wall colour to the windows and doors, and it is easy to make mistakes without an expert. With heating, many start from the idea that if the old boiler served well for years, the same should go into the new house. This is not a bad starting point, but it is worth recalculating: the heat demand of today's houses is different, and energy prices may develop differently too. When this article appeared in 2022, uncertainty over gas prices led many builders to think through electric heating alongside the familiar solution.

The path of the heat in the two systems

Environmental impact and sustainability

We do not choose a heating system for 1-2 years, so it is also worth weighing which will be reliable in the long term and which burdens the environment less. Heating film burns nothing in the house: there is no smoke and no flue gas, so you do not have to reckon with chimney blockage or the risks that come with combustion. How environmentally friendly it is overall depends on how the electricity used is generated – with your own solar panels this burden can be reduced. A gas boiler, by contrast, uses fossil fuel on site.

Electric heating elements convert 99% of the energy they draw into heat, so the conversion process takes place almost without loss, and moreover where the heat is needed. Most systems can be controlled with a timer or a programmable thermostat, so the temperature per room is easy to set.

Maintenance and operational reliability

A boiler system needs regular maintenance, which is a recurring expense. The maintenance need of heating film is minimal, because it has no burner, pump or moving part.

It is also worth thinking through the effect of a fault. Boiler heating rests on a single heat source and a shared pipe network: if the boiler stops or the pipes are damaged at one point, the heating of the whole house can fail. In a heating film system every room forms a separate heating circuit, and a fault affects only that circuit. In a power cut, however, neither heats, since the control and circulation pump of today's boilers also run on electricity.

What to weigh before deciding

• What is the calculated heat demand of the house, and how is it insulated?
• Is there already a gas connection, or would that also have to be built?
• What is the total investment, with pipework, radiators and chimney, or with heating film, with the control?
• What annual maintenance cost should be expected?
• Do you plan solar panels to reduce the electricity you buy?

The cost comparison of gas and electric heating is covered in our article on gas heating or electric heating, and an overview of heating methods is on our page on electric heating; for details on heating film, read the infrared heating page.