Smart electric radiators can now take advantage of IoT to improve energy efficiency. Salvatore Cirasuolo of IntelliHeat explains.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, is now being utilised by smart interface units to totally transform the way we reduce energy costs. Using an open protocol IoT technology, smart electric radiators are right now improving heating efficiency, reducing energy costs, carbon emissions and simplifying installation for commercial clients and end users.

Revolutionary advance in technology

A new generation of advanced electronic electric radiators, iSense is the very first heating system to use its own integral Wi-Fi connectivity to a cloud dashboard and also utilise 5G NB-IoT for totally remote connectivity that can be used by just one radiator and up to one thousand smart radiators, providing a superior efficiency network management and optimisation system.

For every commercial organisation dealing with the inefficiencies of maintaining and managing many properties or buildings, or large many roomed public buildings (housing association, hotel, hospital, factory, school, university, or offices) this means users now have access to a highly reliable, low cost, two-way communication management platform that can be accessed by maintenance staff, from any web device, from wherever they are.

This means no more maintenance crews needed onsite, they can work from home, or a head office in any city, via the Internet, to monitor and maintain the electric heating systems of all buildings, hotel rooms, shops, or offices without running from room to room and driving building to building, turning switches, and pressing buttons. This on its own will save massive costs and carbon emissions in travelling from site to site on motorways, wasted travel time, and risks of tiredness, staff sickness and accident.

The future

Our future will soon rely on having efficient interconnected systems that can be controlled from a distance, remotely using a tablet, laptop, or smart phone. Just imagine all the problems caused by COVID where staff were unable to enter premises to maintain or repair systems. A buildings maintenance team can now identify any fault, alter controls, and turn radiators on, off, up, or down, from their own office using the MySense remote management portal.

This enables installers and maintenance teams operators to monitor performance and update settings for the entire heating installation, in all company buildings across the UK, or across all housing stock, or every ward in a large Hospital, or every office in a large Local authority building, without leaving their desk.

Connectivity is king

As well as commercial properties, our family homes, appliances, and electronics are now becoming more and more connected.

We all know that a smart fridge can send out an automatic food order as you use and remove basic items. Smart electric radiators are now helping families to reduce their consumption and reduce their bills. The smart electric radiators with MySense inbuilt energy-saving features can reduce monthly electric bills using these processes: remote programming, connectivity and real-time monitoring, individual radiator temperature controls, door open and room occupation identification with automatic switch off technology.

For commercial maintenance teams, this also enable operators to optimise site-wide performance, driving low-cost operation, proactive maintenance, improved efficiency and reliability, reduction of carbon and of course vastly improved customer service at no extra cost.

Technical benefits

For companies and large corporations with multi-site buildings, or large numbers of rooms such as hotels, housing associations, hospitals, schools, factories, offices, and public buildings, the  benefits of using MySense remote cloud management portal include:

• Quick and efficient set up, commission and performance verification of IntelliHeat electric radiators with other tertiary connected systems using the open protocol.
• Complete system open protocol transparency enables installers and operators to identify common energy consumption issues (this means you can turn off not only the radiators, but also the lights).
• Fully remote monitoring of all settings with remote control enabling optimum energy efficient performance and enabling varying heating system conditions and individual requirements.
• Wi-Fi built-in. No need for any installation of hubs, boxes, bridges, wall monitors, zone boxes, different floor controllers, signal boosters, or anything to connect and send information to. Every smart electric radiator comes complete with its own integral sim-based Wi-Fi connector.
• Total Eco-Design verification compliance during initial heat system tuning and validation.
• Fast identification of errors remotely, often before interruption to service – enabling targeted planned maintenance and reduced to nil emergency call outs.

Designed to save money and lower carbon footprints this new generation of smart electric radiators are fully compliant with Ecodesign lot 20, Code of Practice guidelines, and with full UKCA and BS approval. The ISENSE, which is manufactured in the EU, offers multiple connectivity options, including 5G NB-IoT, GPRS, Ethernet, Modbus and MBus.

No vendor lock-in

There is no vendor lock-in because the MySense management portal is completely open to authorised third parties and the MYSENSE App means easy function of all third party systems, with no additional hardware requirements. This means adding your lights, electric blinds, electric gates, doors, fans, and any other electrical product you wish to control from afar. In addition, iSense and MySense incorporate a totally automatic live-time energy consumption reading system, avoiding the usual capital cost of purchasing separate equipment.

On existing iSense smart electric radiators installations, MySense is helping to improve electric heating efficiency by up to 35% – resulting in massive cost savings and reduction of CO2 emissions by as much as 40%.

The future is here; smart electric heating technology can automatically adjust settings to reduce energy consumption and energy bills, helping installers and specifiers deliver greener, high efficiency, low cost heating systems – it’s time to embrace the change.

To discover more about MySense, click here