What does an infrared panel heater cost per hour to run in the UK?

Heating By Ellen HartwellPublished 22 October 2026

What infrared panels draw

An infrared panel is a flat heating element behind a glass, steel or mirror face, and it works by warming the people, walls and furniture in front of it rather than the air in between. Electrically it is no different from any other resistive heater. The plate rating is what it draws while the element is on, and every watt of that becomes heat in the room.

The panels are small heaters by the standards of a portable radiator. Herschel's Select XLS range runs from 300 watts to 1,100 watts, and Herschel's own catalogue sizes the 300 watt panel for 5 to 7 square metres, the 600 watt panel for 11 to 13 square metres and the 1,100 watt panel for 15 to 24 square metres, with the note that these areas are an indicative guide only. Infrared Group's Classic panels come in 450, 700, 900 and 1,100 watts, with a surface temperature of 95°C to 105°C. We use 600 watts as the everyday figure, the size Herschel matches to a room of 11 to 13 square metres, about the floor of a double bedroom.

The cost per hour, per evening and per month

At the current cap rate of 26.32p per kWh, a 600 watt panel costs 15.8p an hour while the element is on. Over a four hour evening with the element on the whole time that comes to 63.2p, and a month of those evenings costs £18.95.

Those figures are the ceiling. A panel on a thermostat switches off once the room reaches its set temperature, and Herschel sells its XLS panels to be used with a separate XLS thermostat for that reason. A panel wired straight to a switch with no thermostat runs flat out until someone turns it off, and then the table is exactly what you pay.

Rates: Ofgem cap 1 October to 31 December 2026 at 26.32p per kWh (source), EIA residential average June 2026 at 18.34 cents per kWh (source). Checked 2026-09-22.

Where the saving claims come from

Infrared panels are often sold with large saving figures. Infrared Group says its Classic panels need up to 42 per cent less wattage to heat the same area as traditional electric radiators, and it also claims energy savings of up to 60 per cent against gas central heating. Both are worth testing against numbers you can check.

The wattage claim is really a sizing claim, and the makers' own tables bear it out on paper. Herschel puts an 800 watt panel in a room of 13 to 18 square metres, while Haverland, which makes conventional electric radiators, puts its 1,400 watt RC9W+ in a 16 square metre room. For a room of about 13 square metres that is a 600 watt panel at 15.8p an hour against Haverland's 1,100 watt radiator at 29.0p an hour. If the smaller panel really does keep you comfortable, the saving per hour is real and it is about the size Infrared Group quotes.

Whether it does depends on where you sit. A room loses heat through its walls and windows at the same rate whatever is heating it, and the infrared case rests on you feeling warm at a lower air temperature because the panel warms you and the surfaces around you directly. Sitting in front of the panel, that can hold. On the far side of a large room, or behind a sofa that blocks the panel's line of sight, it does not, and an undersized panel then runs for longer without making the room feel warm.

The gas claim is harder to square with the cap rates. Gas heat from a boiler costs about 8.9p a kilowatt hour once you allow for efficiency, and a panel costs 26.32p. For a panel to beat gas by 60 per cent it would have to keep a household comfortable on about 13 per cent of the heat the boiler supplies, which is a much bigger claim than the sizing tables make. Where infrared does beat gas is one room in an otherwise unheated house, the same case where any electric heater beats firing the boiler.

Infrared panel against a portable heater

The fair comparison for most readers is a panel against the heater they already own. A 2kW oil filled radiator or fan heater costs 52.6p an hour on full, more than three times a 600 watt panel, but it puts out more than three times the heat and warms the air of the whole room. A panel at a third of the power is the cheaper choice for someone who sits in one spot, such as a home office desk or the end of a sofa, and the weaker choice for a family moving around a cold living room.

Panels also suit rooms where warm air is wasted. In a room with a high ceiling, or a draughty conservatory, a fan heater's warm air rises and leaks away, while a panel aimed at the seating area warms the people directly. That is the situation where the smaller wattage genuinely does the job.

Getting the most heat for the money

• Mount the panel where it can see the people it is meant to warm, on the wall facing the sofa or the desk, since furniture between you and the panel blocks most of the effect.
• Fit a thermostat, because a panel with no control runs at full output for as long as it is switched on.
• Size it against your own room rather than the brochure, using the lower end of the maker's area range for a poorly insulated or north facing room.
• Close the door and the curtains, because the walls and windows still lose heat at the same rate whatever is heating them.
• Turn it off when you leave the room. A panel warms people and surfaces, and an empty room gets nothing from it.

What it costs in the United States

At the EIA residential average of 18.34 cents per kilowatt hour, a 600 watt infrared panel costs 11.0 cents an hour, 44.0 cents for a four hour evening and $13.20 for thirty evenings. In California at 34.74 cents the same panel costs 20.8 cents an hour, and in Texas at 15.94 cents it costs 9.6 cents.