Cheap, Effective and Invisible - Heating Film as a Heating System

Heating film is electric infrared heating built in behind the floor, wall or ceiling: by radiation it warms the surfaces of the room and the people in it, not primarily the air, and apart from the thermostat nothing of it is visible. What it costs to run depends on the heat demand of the house, the insulation and the electricity price - which is why we do not promise a general saving, but prepare a calculation tailored to your house.

This article was written in spring 2023, during the energy crisis. With energy prices shooting up in the wake of Covid and the war, the cost of heating became, almost overnight, one of the most important questions for households, and many people started to rethink what to heat with: how to create warmth that is both economical and comfortable.

What makes heating film human-friendly?

Infrared heating works on a different principle from conventional heating that warms the air: it releases heat by radiation, so it first warms the floor, the walls, objects and the people in the room, and the air is warmed by these. The way the heat is transferred resembles sunshine - though heating film, of course, runs not on the energy of the sun but on electricity.

Many people find radiant heat more pleasant: with a warm floor and walls the room can feel comfortable at a lower air temperature, and there is no strong air flow stirring up dust. We do not, however, attribute any healing effect to it; if you are interested in health questions, for example the electric field of heating film, we write about it in our article "Is infrared heating harmful?".

Types of infrared heating

Infrared heating today comes in several variants, and all of them work on the same radiant principle: the infrared panel mounted on a wall or ceiling, the dark radiator for spaces with high ceilings and for terraces, and heating film hidden behind the floor covering. In residential buildings we primarily recommend heating film. When this article was published, in 2023, we installed 3rd-generation intelligent heating film; today we install 4th-generation heating film. We give a 15.5-year warranty on 4th-generation heating film if we carry out the installation.

What do installation and running cost?

This is a question even a layperson rightly asks: it may be comfortable, but what does it cost to install and how much is maintenance? The cost of installation depends on the floor area to be heated, the layer build-up and whether the electrical network needs extending. For maintenance, the advantage of heating film comes from its simpler construction: there is no boiler, flue gas removal or water circuit, so maintaining those does not burden the budget either.

The running cost depends on the heat demand of the building and the electricity price; in a well-insulated house it is quite different from an old, uninsulated building. How much electricity infrared heating uses is explained on our consumption page, and you will find a recent comparison with a heat pump in our latest cost comparison. We also wrote earlier about the cost-effectiveness of intelligent heating film in our article presenting it as a solution resilient to energy costs.

Invisible heating

Heating film goes under the floor, into the wall or above the ceiling, so it takes up no space in the home, no radiator or heater needs to hang on the wall, and the furnishing does not have to adapt to it. It is practically visible only during installation and afterwards does its job unnoticed - so the old "efficient or aesthetic?" debate needs no compromise either.

Comfortable, easy to control and invisible: these are always advantages in a heating system. How economical it is in a given house is best calculated from the heat demand.

If you would like to read more articles about infrared heating, click here.

If you would like to know what heating film heating would cost in your house, request a quote (installation is available in Hungary), or contact us on +36 20 400 7400 or at info@futofolia.hu.

Wishing you a pleasant day,
Tamás Tóth
and the Intelligens Fűtőfólia team