Infrared heating panels vs air-to-air heat pumps: which is cheaper to run and better for your home?

Infrared heating panels are not cheaper to run than an air-to-air heat pump. They cost the same to run as any other electric heater, 26.11p for every kWh of heat at the July to September 2026 price cap, while a modern air-to-air heat pump delivers the same kWh of heat for roughly 5p to 7p. Over one winter in one living room, that is a gap of around £120.

What panels do offer is a low price, silence, no maintenance, no outdoor unit, and a pleasant kind of warmth in rooms you use in short bursts. So: a heat pump for any room you heat for hours, a panel for the bathroom, the spare room, or anywhere a £1,500 to £3,000 install cannot be justified.

The verdict in one table

Prices and rates correct as of September 2026. The energy price cap changes quarterly, so check current rates before budgeting.

Why a panel costs four to five times more to run

Every heater that works by electrical resistance, whether a fan heater, an oil-filled radiator, a storage heater, or an infrared panel, turns 1kWh of electricity into 1kWh of heat. That is 100% efficient, and it is also the ceiling. Herschel, the biggest UK panel brand, says so on its own site: infrared heaters are "direct acting electric heaters" that are "assumed to be 100% efficient".

An air-to-air heat pump is a reverse-cycle air conditioner that pulls heat from the outside air and moves it indoors, and moving heat takes far less energy than making it. Manufacturer figures for current R32 wall splits sit between SCOP 4 and just over 5: Daikin's Perfera FTXM35R is rated SCOP 5.10 (A+++) and Mitsubishi Electric's MSZ-LN25 is rated SCOP 5.2. SCOP is the seasonal coefficient of performance, the average heat out per unit of electricity in across a whole heating season, cold snaps included.

From 1 October 2026 the rate moves to 26.32p/kWh, which shifts these figures by a fraction of a penny (see our note on October's price cap). The standing charge is the same whichever heater you own. The Energy Saving Trust puts it more cautiously and lands in the same place: heat pumps "use less electricity than infrared heating to produce the same amount of heat, typically two to four times less".

A worked example: one living room, one winter

Take a 15m² living room heated for 5 hours each evening for 120 days from November to February. Herschel's own sizing guide puts a room that size on its 800W or 1,100W panel in a medium to well insulated home, so assume the room needs an average of 1kW of heat across those hours. That is 600kWh of heat over the winter.

That is £117 to £125 a winter for a single room, and several hundred pounds a year for a whole flat on panels. A draughty single-glazed room needs more than 1kW, which widens the gap. Panel sellers will point out, fairly, that radiant heat feels comfortable at a lower air temperature; Herschel's figure is "around 1°C lower". That is worth perhaps 6% to 10% off the panel's bill. It does not close a 75% to 80% gap.

Upfront cost: where the panel wins clearly

Infrared panels. Budget brands such as Klarstein and Kiasa sell 300W to 720W panels for £105 to £190. Ecostrad's Accent IR range at Electric Radiators Direct runs from £199.99 (350W) to £309.99 (1,100W). Screwfix lists a Ximax 600W designer panel at £223.99. Herschel's Select XLS goes from £238 (300W) to £539 (1,100W), with picture and colour panels from £539. Most have a fitted plug and hang on four screws. Hard-wiring to a fused spur needs an electrician, and a new circuit or any bathroom work is notifiable under Part P, so budget £150 to £500 per panel installed.

Air-to-air heat pump. A single wall split, supplied and fitted by an F-Gas certified installer, typically costs £1,500 to £3,000; premium units such as the Daikin Perfera or Mitsubishi MSZ-LN come in at £2,500 to £4,500. The Energy Saving Trust quotes around £1,900 for a single room and £3,700 for a three-bedroom semi on a multi-split. Permanently fixed units carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027. Our air-to-air heat pump cost guide breaks down what moves the quote.

So the panel is £1,000 to £2,500 cheaper per room to get going. On the living room sums above, the heat pump claws that back in roughly 8 to 20 winters on heating alone, much faster if you would otherwise buy a portable air conditioner for summer, and faster still if the £2,500 grant lands. For a bathroom used 40 minutes a day, the panel never needs paying back at all.

Comfort: radiant versus warm air

An infrared panel warms whatever it shines on: you, the sofa, the floor, the walls. Stand in front of one and you feel it within a couple of minutes, long before the air temperature has moved. The flip side, which the Energy Saving Trust flags, is that surfaces outside the panel's beam stay cold, and cold surfaces in a warm, humid room are where condensation and mould start. Undersized or badly placed panels are a common cause of complaints.

A heat pump warms the air and moves it, so the whole room reaches temperature evenly, usually within 10 to 20 minutes, and it dries the air as it goes. Some people find blown warm air less cosy than a radiant source, and a poorly sited indoor unit can create a draught. Placement and a sensible fan setting fix most of that; our guide to heating with air conditioning covers running one well in winter.

Noise, looks, and space

A panel is silent: no fan, no compressor, no moving parts. A wall split has an indoor fan and an outdoor compressor. On the quietest models the indoor unit runs from 19 dB(A) on its lowest fan speed (both the Daikin Perfera and the Mitsubishi MSZ-LN quote that figure), with mid-range units and higher fan speeds in the 20s. On looks the panel wins again: a 22mm to 35mm slab of white glass, a mirror, or a printed picture, and nothing outside. A split means an indoor unit high on the wall, trunking for the pipework, and an outdoor box on a bracket or the ground.

Installation, planning, and who can fit what

Panels. Plug in and hang, or an hour of a registered electrician's time for a spur. No planning permission, no refrigerant, no outdoor unit. Bathroom panels need the right IP rating for the zone: Herschel's Select XLS is IP44 and Ecostrad's Accent IR is IP54.

Heat pump. The refrigerant circuit must be installed by an F-Gas certified engineer; fitting a split yourself is a criminal offence. The unit needs its own electrical supply, which is notifiable work. In England a reverse-cycle unit that heats and cools is normally permitted development under Class G: one outdoor unit on a semi, terrace, or flat, two on a detached house, each under 1.5m³, and quiet enough to meet the MCS 020-a limit of 37 dB(A) at a neighbour's window. Cooling-only units are not covered, listed buildings need consent, and the devolved nations have their own rules, so check with your local planning authority.

Grants: £2,500 for a heat pump, nothing for panels

Infrared panels attract no grant of any kind. An air-to-air heat pump qualifies, on paper, for £2,500 under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales: residential property, replacing an existing fossil fuel or electric heating system (storage and panel heaters count), MCS-certified product, MCS-certified installer.

That last condition is the catch in September 2026. Daikin became the first manufacturer with air-to-air products on the MCS Product Directory on 1 September, and UKAS approved the changes bringing air-to-air installers into the MCS scheme on 11 September, but the bodies that certify installers were still working towards accreditation as we wrote this. Very few vouchers had been claimed by the summer and, as far as we can tell, no installations had been completed under the grant. It is real and it is coming, but do not plan your budget around it yet. Check the MCS installer and product directories before you sign anything, and read our air-to-air heat pump grant guide for the current position.

A grant that nobody has yet received is not a discount. Price the heat pump at full cost and treat the £2,500 as a bonus if it arrives.

Marketing claims to be wary of

Infrared panels are sold with a confidence the physics does not support. Three things to watch for:

• "Up to 60% cheaper to run." This claim is attached to Herschel's Select XLS in third-party round-ups, with no baseline. Cheaper than what, at what tariff, for how many hours? Against another electric heater the honest answer is "perhaps a little, if you turn the thermostat down". Against a heat pump the panel is the expensive option by a wide margin.

• Daily cost comparisons with unequal assumptions. Herschel's storage heater comparison runs the storage heater at full charge for 7 hours and the infrared for "5 hours or less", and prices the panel's electricity at about 14p/kWh, barely half the 2026 cap. Any comparison that does not show its kWh and its pence per kWh is a brochure, not a calculation.

• "Heat pumps are only 250% efficient." Herschel's heat pump page assumes a COP of 2.5, a pessimistic figure for an air-to-water system on a cold day. Air-to-air wall splits are rated at SCOP 4 to 5.2 by their manufacturers across a whole season, and doubling the efficiency halves the bill.

"100% efficient" on a panel's spec sheet is a tell too. It is the law of conservation of energy, and it applies equally to a £15 fan heater.

Which should you choose, room by room

Bathroom. Panel. You are in there for minutes, you want instant radiant warmth, and a split makes no sense. A 300W to 400W IP-rated panel or a mirror panel is ideal.

Spare bedroom. Panel. Heated a handful of nights a year, the running cost gap never catches up with the install saving.

Main bedroom. Depends on hours. An hour before bed and the panel is fine. If someone works in the room, or you want cooling in July, the split wins.

Living room. Heat pump. Five hours an evening all winter is exactly where the running cost gap turns into real money, and you get air conditioning for the summer thrown in.

Home office or garden room. Heat pump if you are in there most of the day; a panel if it is an occasional space.

Whole flat or house on storage heaters. Heat pump, usually a multi-split. This is the household the £2,500 grant is designed for.

Renting. A plug-in panel is yours, needs no permission, and moves with you. A split is a fixture that needs the landlord's consent and stays behind. Landlords with hard-to-heat electric properties should look at the split for the EPC and the summer cooling; tenants should look at the panel for the deposit.

Plenty of homes end up with both: a split in the living room and a couple of panels in the bathroom and spare room. That is a sensible combination, not a compromise. For what it costs to heat any room by any method, see the cheapest way to heat a room. For the technology itself, start with our air-to-air heat pumps guide, then the rest of our heating guides and buying guides.