Most of us work to reduce our carbon footprint by avoiding single-use plastics, eating less meat or cycling to work, but few people are aware of the carbon emissions produced by their home heating. 15% of the UK’s carbon emissions come from heating homes with fossil fuels. An average gas boiler emits greenhouse gases roughly equivalent to eating 1,263 quarter-pounders made with British beef.

To reduce carbon emissions and meet the Government target of net-zero emissions by 2050, we need to move away from using fossil fuels to heat our homes. This means that, over the next decades, people will need to insulate their homes, replace their gas boilers and better manage their electricity use throughout the day.

Heat pumps are likely to be the most popular solution to decarbonising home heating in most UK homes, as they are reliable and efficient. However, heat pumps won’t be the best solution for all residential properties, particularly for small terraced houses or flats.

Instead, some domestic properties will be heated by alternative technologies such as infrared heating, direct electric heating and hydrogen boilers. To further reduce emissions and electricity consumption coming from homes, these heating systems can be complemented by smart technologies such as smart light switches and smart metres, solar panels and home batteries.

Infrared heating is emitted from a panel, then travels through space until it reaches an object or surface. Instead of heating the air in a room, it heats up the surfaces it reaches, similar to the way the sun heats your skin on a sunny but cold day. The panel uses electricity and only requires fitting on a wall or ceiling, meaning that it is much quicker and cheaper to install than a heat pump (or even a gas boiler) and is particularly suitable for small properties.

There is a relatively limited understanding of the user experience of whole-house infrared heating systems, particularly in a social housing setting. Nesta investigated the two households’ experiences of the new system throughout the winter of 2022-2023. We were in touch with the tenants throughout the cold months to understand how they found the new technology, and how satisfied they were with the system and identified any issues that might arise as they continue to use the system.

Our findings on the pilot demonstrated the potential of intelligent infrared heating systems to provide reliable heating throughout the winter months, but also highlighted potential challenges social housing providers might face when delivering similar work. This project also highlighted the value of piloting these approaches with a small number of properties before considering wider roll-out. You can explore our key recommendations for social housing providers in our report Adopting intelligent infrared heating technologies in social housing.