Prestyl Intros Wall-Mount Heat Panels

By archives on Nov. 21, 2011 | Topics: Energy Efficiency, Products | 9 Comments

I received an email about a “new” product that I thought I’d pass along. Tell me what you think about this far-infrared heating panel that can applied to a wall or ceiling and run through an electrical outlet. Made by Prestyl, the panel incorporates a “reliable French thin-film technology that has been used in aircraft, ships, trains, homes and public buildings overseas for nearly 16 years,” according to a company release.

The panel doesn’t heat the air; energy is reflected by some wall surfaces and absorbed by others to radiate warmth in the room. Prestyl says the heat panels are maintenance free and energy efficient — i.e., energy savings of 15-50% over traditional heating methods.

The panels come in white, black, or a custom design, such as a family picture, corporate logo, or maybe even the Van Gogh pictured below. The panels range in size from 24″ x 24″, 24″ x 48″, and 41.5″ x 41.5″, and they’re priced from $350-$700. Thoughts?

Credits: Prestyl.

Article tags: wall art

About archives: This article was contributed by the founder of Jetson Green. With the arrival of new ownership in December 2012, Preston left Jetson Green to pursue other business opportunities. If you have questions or need assistance, contact tips@jetsongreen.com.

http://www.kocurekindustries.com Cores

Price must be a factor but all the way product is awesome.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1775577382 Doug Bursnall

Heating by electricity = expensive, but if that is your option then at least is flexible in placement and easy to retrofit.
http://psproefrock.wordpress.com Philip Proefrock

By definition, electric resistance heating is 100% efficient, so I don’t think they are going to get more efficient than that.

It may be that they are asserting that, by using radiant panels rather than forced air heating you can maintain comfort at a cooler thermometer temperature (thereby using less energy in total); the same thing is also cited by radiant flooring proponents.

Personally, I’d prefer to have in/under-floor radiant heating than overhead or wall-mounted radiant, but there may be climates where this would be adequate.

In any case, electric heating is always expensive, and should be reserved for small applications and supplemental heating, rather than principal heating.
- MrSteve007
  
  “By definition, electric resistance heating is 100% efficient, so I don’t think they are going to get more efficient than that.”
  
  FYI – Electric heat pumps are ~350% efficient, since they steal ‘free’ energy from heat outside the building envelope.
  
  They measure electric based heating system efficiency by the principal that 1 watt =
  3.41 btu of energy. Electric resistance, infrared, etc are all about ~95% efficient. Which means for every one watt consumed, you get ~3.1 btu of heating. The manufacturers of these systems claim they can have “energy savings of 15-50% over traditional heating methods” simply because you only heat one small area, instead of an entire house. They aren’t providing any more heat. No matter what voodoo they claim, they’re not getting more than 3.2 btu’s for every watt consumed.
  
  Now when it comes to heat pumps, they’re only consuming electricity to run a pump to
  move a heat transfer refrigerant and a couple fans. This allows them to move 10 btus (or more) of heat for every 1 watt put into the system. Since as I said above, since 1 watt has only 3.41 btus of energy, this technically makes this form of heating over 300% efficient. Remember, it’s not breaking any laws of energy conservation, since that refers to a closed system. The heat pump is just ‘stealing’ free heat from outside the system, from the ambient environment.
  
  Don’t believe these claims of how much more efficient their electric radiant, infared, “far-infrared” or other magic they claim. If it uses electricity, and isn’t a form of heat pump, it’s not all that efficient. On a dollar per Btu basis, they’re one of the most expensive forms out there.
  
  P.S. Philip – as an architect, I know you already know all the above information. I just get tired of companies getting their patently inefficient products features on ‘green’ websites, just because they throw in some new marketing (thin film? far-infrared? ha) and put a pretty picture on the front.
  - John Milsom
    
    FYI Gents, You can’t compare “resistive” loads to the Prestyl Panels ie “the carbon fiber”….Prestyl’s “proprietary alloy” is a self regulating alloy that floats at 185 f …It follows the Planck Curve not the resistive…Dig into your FIR tech science text and avoid advising on these panels that are proven successful around the world in very efficient driven countries.. Having a CPO of 2.5 blows away any other system, which I can go on about…The abilities of direct DC or AC is another attribute….When sized correctly, as all conventional convection systems must be, the system is superior,,, plus the “set back” temp control method is used during High $ periods for hydro…
    More info needed?..I’m an electrcian( JM, Master/ FSR), themographer ITC Class 1, HVAC/HRV tech
    
    John Milsom
    Prestyl Energy Corporation
    Canadian Master Distributor
    1 855 347 3939 (855 FIR 3939)
    http://www.prestylenergy.ca
    - MrSteve007
      
      Care to tell us the panels performance in terms of BTU output compared to watts in? For an electric powered heating system, that’s the only metric to compare.
Andrew Stone

I use Eco-Heaters in my kids rooms as supplemental heat at nighttime when our thermostat drops to 58. They are very similar to these and available at ACE Hardware.
- Patrick
  
  I looked at ECO Heaters. Was hoping they were the same, but they are convection heaters. These are radiant. These could be very comfortable, if right near you. And using them as spot heaters on off peak time of use rates might just be a winning formula. Especially for comfort.
http://twitter.com/asaphouse Laszlo Kiss

I agree with Mr. Steve, but do think that they could be used in bathrooms where you need short term heat source for comfort.

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