Do insulated radiator panels save money? - I'm testing them now

Big_Cat_2
Big_Cat_2 Posts: 10 Forumite
Hi

I recently bought a pack of Novitherm /Heatkeeper radiator panels via a special offer in the COOP bank magazine called Change.

The company website blurb says you can save between 10-20% of your heating bill. It also had an impressive set of independent tests results and the Energy Saving Trust like 'em too apparently and a big list of customers,...... BUT do they work?

I'm monitoring my gas usage, but does anyone else have them and if so do they work?

By my reckoning if they saved 10% they would pay for themselves in less than one winter as the special offer cost was only £32 for 10 !!!

I'll see if the offer website link is still working if anyones interested.

Cheers
Big_Cat
«13456714

Comments

  • Ken68
    Ken68 Posts: 6,825
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    Hard to tell, Cat....doubt 10%, kitchen foil on cardboard is a cheap way, or kitchen foil pasted to bubble wrap another.
    Gonna take several years to get back £32.
  • Big_Cat_2
    Big_Cat_2 Posts: 10 Forumite
    Hi Ken68

    These are profiled panels which fit against the wall behind the radiator, their profiled to reflect the heat back and up.

    I checked the website again and independent test by the Scottish Energy Agency gave average results of 14.4% and the UK Atomic energy Authority (!!) tests results were 22-27%, so I'm hoping for at least 10%

    Unless I'm doing my maths wrong.... as my gas bill is over £800 per year, if say 75% is on central heating thats £600, so if I save 10% thats £60 which is almost double what I paid for the panels, so it should have paid for itself in 1 year easy..not several years...

    Or have I missed the point here????
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036
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    Big_Cat wrote:
    Hi Ken68

    These are profiled panels which fit against the wall behind the radiator, their profiled to reflect the heat back and up.

    I checked the website again and independent test by the Scottish Energy Agency gave average results of 14.4% and the UK Atomic energy Authority (!!) tests results were 22-27%, so I'm hoping for at least 10%

    Unless I'm doing my maths wrong.... as my gas bill is over £800 per year, if say 75% is on central heating thats £600, so if I save 10% thats £60 which is almost double what I paid for the panels, so it should have paid for itself in 1 year easy..not several years...

    Or have I missed the point here????

    IMO you have missed the point; or at least been duped by some cleverly worded blurb. Any firm that proudly claims they are members of MICRA (the Metallised Insulative Convection Radiator-panel Association) needs to be treated with suspicion!!

    It boils(no pun) down to finding out 22-27% of what? I do not doubt that there is some saving, but in my humble opinion there is no way they are going to save that sort of figure on your heating bill. Looking at their site it doesn't claim anything of the sort either - in fact the site is rubbish.

    For example they might save a high percentage of the heat loss through a non cavity wall) - but heat loss through walls is only a small percentage of overall heat loss.

    If they were that good then every energy saving website would be pushing them like mad. In spite of your original post that the Energy Saving Trust 'like them', perhaps you can point us to where they give any recommendations for their use.

    I would be most interested to see any figures tests etc. Including from the Scottish Energy Centre(not Agency)(never heard of them and a search doesn't reveal anything) and the UK Atomic Energy Authority(why would they test them?)

    Whilst there will be some saving, the claims made put it into the 'scam' category.
  • Morning everyone, would have posted last night, but laptop crashed, took as a sign to go to bed!

    Anyhow, I did some more digging and found I got it wrong, re the Scottish Energy Agency, IT WAS in fact the Scottish Energy Centre who gave the results. Well spotted Cardew.

    I also found a Canadian website https://www.novitherm.com which gives tons of info and real life installations.

    There are also plenty of UK based websites that sell the panels, sometimes known as heatkeepers. (I think novitherm is the commercial markets name for heatkeeprs which is the residential name for the same product!)

    Also from the site I bought them from they give a long list of blue chip companies and government departments, councils universities that have installed them too.

    Maybe I’m being biased ‘cos I bought some, but I’m willing to try them out in the name of research ;-)

    I’ll contact the company and ask if I can see the independent test results - I’ll keep you posted

    Also the discount link is still live it’s https://www.efficient-enery.co.uk/page12.htm

    I’m not sure if I should post this link as it was meant for readers of change magazine only… but hey share and share alike!

    Sorry if this is abig no-no to the forum, let me know and I’ll remove it
    Cheers
    Big_Cat
  • oldwiring
    oldwiring Posts: 2,452
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    Ken68 wrote:
    Hard to tell, Cat....doubt 10%, kitchen foil on cardboard is a cheap way, or kitchen foil pasted to bubble wrap another.
    Gonna take several years to get back £32.
    I make no obsercation on the goods as such, but Ken is right to bring up payback time and that includes loss of interest, or even, if one has been rash enough to buy on extended credit the cost of interest. In addition to payback life expectency of the goods might need thinking about. TBH I think the perception of saving is often false. Am I too sceptical?

    BTW it's al la mode to bring the green issue in to claims, but manufactuting uses energy. It isn't any easily answered question but what should not the energy used to produce be entered in to the equation?
  • Ken68
    Ken68 Posts: 6,825
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    Screwfix price similar £6.99 for 5m.
    And something here....

    http://www.greenandeasy.co.uk/products.php?sub_cat_id=79.........the only panel accredited by the EST, so you in good hands Cat.
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036
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    Fitting these panels behind a radiator can only reduce the amount of heat that escapes through the wall at the section of wall behind the radiator e.g. if you have a 8 sq ft radiator, it will reduce the heat escaping through an 8 sq ft section of wall.

    If we accept that it MIGHT reduce the heat escaping through that 8 sq ft of wall by 8% -15%, that is very different from reducing heating costs by 8%-15%.

    Most sites indicate that approx 20-30% of heat in houses is lost through the all of the walls - the rest through windows, roof, doors floor etc.

    Given these panels only cover a very small percentage of your total wall area it is simply not possible that these claims are viable.

    The Energy Saving Trust lists all of the steps you can take to insulate your house and gives typical savings. It goes down to a £10 saving for some steps you can take. These panels don't even get a mention.
  • Fair point Cardew and thank you Ken68,

    I just spoke to the Energy Saving Trust and they said that not all products they accredit are on their website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!………and that they didn’t have a list they could send me either ! (me thinks the EST is a government department) they also said that they dont do the accrediting, another organization does? --I’ll keep digging!

    The company I got the panels (efficient-energy.co.uk) from are going to contact me with the results from the indep. Tests, so watch this space……

    In the mean time………………………..

    Why not try this when we get home tonight,

    Anyone without panels fitted, put your hand behind your radiator when you're rooms warmed up, see how hot it is, then place other hand on wall 10 foot away (or for the post 1972 ers, about 3 metres!)

    I would imagine there is quite a difference!, this would suggest (maybe) that you're heating up a specific area of wall to a high temperature, with panels fitted your not? must be a decent saving there. I dont know of anyone who would point there fan heater at the wall from a distance of half an inch (2 cm)!!! (same difference, different heat source)

    For those with rad panels fitted, see what the difference is?

    Anyhow, lets not get too heated about this one, lets wait for the test evidence
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