Principles of heating and feeling warm: The Süka Heaters are not cheap. If your search is for cheap heaters, this is not the place. What the Süka Heaters will do for you will transform your home.

So before you are able to choose the right heating product, you need to analyse your basic heating requirements. Elderly Mr. & Mrs. S in their small retirement bungalow in Dublin have different heating requirements to Mr. & Mrs. T living in a large farmhouse in an exposed area of far western countryside. A church or village hall both have different heating requirements than a normal householder or someone owning a barn conversion used for holiday lets.

Feeling warm is a very subjective matter. How often have you experienced two people in a room, one of whom is cold and the other feeling too warm? So heating needs to suit the needs of each individual as much as possible. It is NOT a case of just providing 22°C (approx. 72°F) of heat in a room.

Disadvantages of convection heat

Most electrical heating from different systems provide heat via convection, so that the air is warmed and circulated in the room to reach the required temperature of 22°C. These systems have the disadvantages of:

• Causing the hot air to rise quickly so that the ceilings are warm and the floors are cold. Result: warm heads and cold feet, a very unhealthy state of affairs.
• The circulation of air causes dust to circulate, this is sucked into the heaters and is burned and leaves unsightly black marks on walls. The circulated dust is also a major cause for allergy sufferers to suffer even more.
• Convective air is also usually very dry air leading to a dry inside climate/atmosphere of the room. This too is unhealthy, especially for older people as eyes and sinuses dry out, which in turn leads to a higher risk of illness.

Suka heating works in a different manner. Suka copies the sun and relies on the best of all heat: RADIANT HEAT.

Benefits of Radiant heat

• Radiant heating heats the occupants in a dwelling rather than the large volume of air in it”. from Building Services Journal, June 2008.
• Radiant heat is the kind of warmth we feel from the sun, so it's no surprise that many people prefer their heating system to provide a comfortable level of radiant heat to warm the body. The attractive, slimline Suka panel heaters are designed to do just that, giving a perfectly balanced source of heat. Radiant panels are ideally suited to living rooms and bedrooms, especially in modern, well insulated dwellings where heat losses are low.
• Less temperature is required to feel warm, so less energy is used. Using less energy saves you money AND helps the environment. Just think of the winter when the sun is shining and you go outside. The air temperature may only be just above freezing, but your exposed skin soon feels warm from the sun. This is why skiers often sunbathe at the tops of mountains in winter, with much skin exposed to the sun! The receptors in the skin's surface react very quickly to radiant heat; much more and much quicker than to warm/hot air. So having hot air circulating in your home is NOT the most efficient way of heating.
• Radiant heat also warms up the walls and furniture of a room and these too store the heat and radiate it out. The house shell and its contents are used as thermal mass and are then a store of heat. This means only top up heat is required. Compare this with an electrical immersion heater, which is well lagged. It is far cheaper to keep such a heater switched on, than to keep switching it on and off in the mistaken belief that you save energy. Remember how long a simple stone, which has been warmed by the winter sun, will retain its heat compared to a stone, which has been subjected to just hot air.
• Compare a 2 KW hair drier, a 2 KW iron and a 2 KW slim-line radiator from Suka They all require 2 KW of power, yet which one will heat a room for you? The Suka radiator, thanks to its storage capacity and sensitive thermostatic control (which measures the temperature at floor level), only requires approx. 15 minutes of electricity to provide 60 minutes of warmth. This heat radiated out over a large surface area will give you the most comfortable warmth compared to the hair dryer and iron!