Heating costs are rising yearly, and if you use your heating systems frequently, a smart wifi electric heater is crucial. In 2021, the average electricity bill for UK residents was £764. This figure showed a 7.5% increase from 2020. People can expect this figure to increase in the coming years, which is why it is important to browse through efficient heating sources.

Smart heaters are a great way to add more functionality to a standard heater and save on energy. Smart Wifi heaters use significantly less energy than a traditional heater as they rely on a network connection to operate. Here is everything you need to know about smart wifi heaters. 

What Is A Smart Wifi Heater?

A smart wifi heater is a modern and efficient way to control your heating from a smartphone or a home assistant hub. These heaters connect to your wifi network to provide better functionality than a traditional heater.  

You can also connect smart heaters to other network sources and enjoy similar benefits. However, a Wifi connection is the most convenient network source for many users; therefore, if you are looking for a smart heater, opt for a smart wifi electric heater. 

With smart wifi heaters, you can control all temperature-related aspects of your home just as you would with a regular heater. Smart wifi heaters work alongside a corresponding app which you must download on your smartphone to access all the different controls. Some smart heaters come with a wall panel that lets you access the controls. 

Some great functions of a smart wifi heater include energy consumption tracking and data, customisable heating schedules, and timers for operation. With this added functionality and precise control, smart wifi electric heaters are a great option for both commercial and residential properties. 

For properties with high heat usage, a smart wifi heater will help you reduce your energy consumption. Smart wifi heaters come in various sizes and configurations depending on the consumer's needs. Some consumers prefer a compact smart heater that can easily fit in a smaller location. 

Many homeowners tend to prefer a smaller heater size as the first step to smart heating. However, building with a larger heating requirement can opt for more complex smart heaters systems. 

Before you start looking for a smart heater, it is important to recognise your heating needs and requirements to make the best choice when it comes to smart heating. 

What Are Some Important Characteristics Of Smart Heaters?

Every smart wifi heater comes with a universal set of characteristics that can be found across multiple smart heaters; however, some smart wifi heaters come with unique features as well. 

The most common characteristic amongst smart wifi heaters is corresponding. This downloadable app lets you access your heater controls through a smartphone, tablet, and other related devices. This app lets you control the smart appliance remotely without any manual configuration. 

Apart from the app, some common characteristics of smart heaters include:

• On/off button for manual operation, if needed.
• A standard temperature modification component with a slider function
• Optimal temperature setting option
• A display with the current temperature of a room
• Scheduling and scene settings for specific rooms
• A central hub for managing more than one heating system
• Network connectivity portal
• Intelligent machine learning to adjust temperature settings according to the building’s needs. 

As mentioned before, some smart wifi heaters will have their own unique features. Make sure that you check the specifications of these smart appliances before making a purchase. 

What Makes A Heater Smart?

Smart wifi heaters are extremely different than their traditional counterparts. While some modern iterations of the standard heaters come with extra functionality, these still do not have smart capabilities. 

The way smart heating devices operate separates them from conventional heating units. Smart wifi heaters use machine learning to make temperature-related decisions. However, standard heaters do not have these capabilities. 

Smart heaters also allow a higher level of control than standard heaters. While most heaters come with remote control, smart wifi heaters offer internet connectivity, and they can be operated through a smartphone, tablet, or even a virtual home assistant. With this connectivity, you can also use voice commands to operate your heating systems. 

Smart heaters use machine learning to learn a building temperature, and the system can adjust its settings accordingly. Smart wifi heaters will automatically turn on when you need them and turn off when you don’t. Smart heaters monitor the room’s temperature and adjust the heat settings accordingly without any manual input. 

Most smart wifi heaters will let you create separate heating temperatures according to each room. Smart thermostats operate by letting your control multi-room heat settings and hot water control. For example, if you are sitting in your warm living room, you can automatically turn on the heat settings in another room, such as a bedroom, to avoid walking into a cold room. 

With a water heating configuration, smart heaters will allow you to save energy costs by only heating up the volume of water you need. In this process, you won’t waste a large amount of heated water. 

Some smart thermostats also come with geofencing capabilities and motion sensor technology to identify whether a room is occupied or not. This lets the system know when to start heating up the room and conserving excess heat consumption. These components ensure that no heat energy is wasted. 

If energy savings are a priority, you must look for smart wifi heaters with such capabilities. Many smart wifi heaters also include safety features that protect your home’s piping from long-term heat damage. For wifi heaters, you must follow proper installation guidelines to ensure that your heating system works efficiently. 

Once the installation is complete, you can send a signal via your network to tell the heating system how to operate. In case there is any risk to the heating systems, the smart technology will let you know when to do maintenance work on the heating system. 

Another helpful feature of smart heaters that you will not find in conventional heaters is energy tracking. Most smart wifi heaters track and monitor your heat energy consumption. You can use this data to choose more energy efficient settings for your heating system. 

Do Smart WiFi Heaters Save Energy?

Smart heaters are well known for their energy saving capabilities. In fact, most smart heating systems can help you save around 6% on your energy bills. 

Even if this figure seems small, multiple years of savings can add up, and you will enjoy many benefits in the future. Prolonged use of smart wifi heaters will let consumers enjoy long-term efficiency benefits. 

Some homeowners can expect to save between 10-20% on their energy bills depending on their energy consumption. However, this number can fluctuate depending on how frequently you use your heating systems. 

For instance, people in colder climates might make much more use of their heating systems than people in a more temperate location. Therefore, the more you use your smart heating systems, the more energy saving benefits you will see. 

This process highlights how a smart wifi heater directly affects your energy consumption; however, there are some alternative ways you can conserve energy with smart heaters. 

With smart wifi heaters, you get precise control over your heating systems. This allows you to optimise your energy consumption in a way that is not possible with conventional heating systems. 

Many smart heaters give accurate temperature readings so you can have precise control over the temperature of your room. Traditional heating systems are not as accurate. Therefore, the heating process is very inefficient. 

Once you get better control over your heating, you will see the difference in your energy bills. Even if you start off with a small amount of savings, these will add up in the long run. This quality makes smart heaters a very attractive choice for households. 

What Is Home Automation?

Smart wifi heaters are a great way to start building a connected home, and this process comes under home automation. So, what is home automation? 

Home automation is the process of building a smart home. You can start creating a smart home by installing smart products in your home, including a smart heater. Even your smartphone is a part of your smart home as it connects to the home network. 

In short, anything that can be connected to a network connection is controlled remotely or automated. Apart from smart heaters, you can also add energy efficient lighting, smart switches and sockets, and even smart security systems to your home. 

A wifi network is crucial to creating a connected home as this gives smart products their smart capabilities. Many early home automation systems were designed to work with desktop computers. However, frequent smart home devices are compatible with smartphones, tablets, and much more, giving you far better control over your smart products. 

Even though there are a wide variety of smart products on the market, not all are created the same because some smart products are not compatible with a connected home. If you are purchasing smart products specifically for home automation, make sure to check all the information provided by the manufacturer before making a purchase. 

The main goal of home automation is to control multiple electronic components in a household with one device. A smart wifi heater is a great way to introduce home automation in your household as you can control multiple aspects with these smart appliances. Modern smart heaters let you control multiple zones of heating, and you can also integrate a smart water heating system. 

Energy Efficiency With Home Automation

One of the biggest advantages of home automation is the high potential for energy savings and, ultimately, cost savings. 

A regular smart heater uses a temperature threshold to control your home’s heating systems; however, there are many more energy saving benefits with this device. In most cases, smart wifi heaters can also be programmed to operate with different target temperatures in order to keep the energy consumption low during certain times of the day. 

For example, if you require less heating in the morning, you can program this setting into your smart heater. At the most basic level, home automatic can provide schedule programming to multiple devices, including smart lights and smart sockets. 

With this capability, you can control your electronic products and appliances to your needs and save energy in the process. Isolated devices such as smart heaters can also further break down their scheduling capabilities.  

You can set separate schedules for weekdays or set schedules according to seasons. Apart from schedules, you can also program routines or scenes in your smart heating systems to let the appliances automatically operate according to your needs. 

How To Create Zoning With Smart Wifi Heaters?

Zoning is a great way to make the most out of your heating systems. With zoning, you can adjust and moderate different temperature requirements in various living spaces in your home. For instance, you might want a cooler temperature in the bedroom at night. 

However, you want to keep the loving room warm throughout the day during the winter season. With these requirements in mind, you can create zoning settings with your smart wifi heater to set unique temperature levels. 

Traditionally zoning was done much differently, and electricians would use a system-based zoning technique to keep different temperatures in multiple sections of the house. This process was done by placing different heaters in different rooms and manually managing the temperature. 

This practice is not as common today because it is quite costly and not as energy efficient. The cost of buying multiple heaters can add up significantly, and ultimately, your energy consumption will also increase. 

Additionally, there is very little convenience with the system because you will need to manually operate multiple heaters throughout your home. To replace these outdated methods, smart heaters have much better capabilities when it comes to zone heating.

Zoning With Smart Heaters

Smart heaters make it easy to create zoned heating in your home. Some smart heaters come with different sensors that you can place in each section of the home where you require heating. 

These sensors are connected to a central management system that works alongside your wireless network. This sensor sends back information and data about the room’s temperature levels over time. With prolonged use of the smart heater, the smart technology learns your temperature patterns and stores the information in a database. 

Using this data, the heating unit adjusts the temperature according to your comfort. Once the heater stores enough data, it will start giving you schedules based on machine learning. These schedules will help you fine-tune your heater’s internal temperature. 

Some of these schedules might be based on where you spend the most time while you are at home. You can choose to use the machine-learned schedule, or you could make adjustments for even more efficient use of your heating. For example, you can program the heater to only work in a guest room when it is occupied. 

What Are The Best Smart Heaters On The Markets?

There are a wide variety of smart heaters on the market, and it can be difficult to know which one is truly reliable. 

At Meteor Electrical, you can find a range of highly efficient smart heaters that will provide you with convenience and comfort. The ATC electrical range of smart heaters is energy-efficient solutions that do not compromise on quality. Here are some of the best smart heaters you can find at Meteor. 

1. 500W ATC iLifestyle Smart Radiator

The 500W ATC lifestyle smart radiator is an award-winning oil-filled electric radiator that is great if you want to start out with smart heating systems. This heating unit comes with Wi-Fi control capabilities, so you don’t need any external network to use your radiator. 

The ATC heater is manufactured with aluminum fins to guarantee optimal heat transmission. The 500W radiator comes with three modes - eco, comfort, and frost to suit everyone’s temperature control needs. 

2. 1000W ATC iLifestyle Smart Radiator

For a mid-range option, you should consider the 1000W ATC iLifestyle smart radiator. This radiator has all the same capabilities as the 500W radiator; however, this heater is perfect for people with a mid to larger home. 

Smart heaters come with wifi compatibility so that you can access many more controls through your wireless heaters' network. The ATC heater is a great way to start building home automation in your household. 

3. 1800W ATC iLifestyle Smart Radiator

If you are looking for smart heaters with a larger heat energy transmission, the 1800W ATC iLifestyle smart radiator is the product for you. Just like other ATC heaters, this product also comes with Wi-Fi controllability so that you can operate your heaters from anywhere. 

This radiator is highly intelligent as it provides precision control of 0.2 degrees Celsius. The 1800W radiator is also fitter with a large display panel that makes it easy read any information. You can also connect your smart home assistant to use voice commands with the 1800W radiator. 

Struggling to choose an smart radiator? Check out our blog on the Best Smart Heaters! 

Final Takeaway

Smart wifi heaters are a great way to start building up a connected home. These heaters are not only convenient, but they are also energy efficient. With frequent smart heater use, you will enjoy many energy saving benefits in the long term.