Infrared heating for warehouses in Nottingham
Commercial infrared heating design and installation for warehouses across Nottingham, Nottinghamshire. Warehouses are the classic case for infrared. High ceilings make warm-air heating hugely wasteful — the heat rises and the floor stays cold. Infrared warms people, racking and the floor directly, so staff feel warm at ground level without heating thousands of cubic metres of air above them.
Is infrared heating a good fit for warehouses in Nottingham?
Yes. Nottingham records about 1894 heating degree days a year (milder than the UK average of ~2000), and for warehouses the practical win is zonal, on-demand radiant heat rather than warming a large air volume — a typical 18 m² occupied zone works out around £266/yr at the current price cap.
Nottingham at a glance
- Region
- East Midlands
- Heating degree days
- 1894/yr
- Avg temperature
- 10.7°C
- Zone cost (18 m²)
- £266/yr
Climate figures: Open-Meteo 2024 archive for Nottingham. Costs are indicative estimates.
Why infrared suits warehouses
Typical building: Large volume, high roofs (6–12 m), frequently opened loading doors and often little insulation.
- Heats surfaces and people at floor level, not the wasted air near the roof.
- Instant, zonal control — heat only the packing or picking areas that are occupied.
- No wet pipework, boilers or annual servicing across a large footprint.
- Recovers quickly after loading doors open, unlike warm-air systems.
Typical specification
High-output ceiling- or wall-mounted infrared panels or radiant tubes zoned by work area, controlled per zone with occupancy timers.
Sizing guide: Typically zoned rather than whole-volume; radiant output sized to the occupied work area.
Estimate a running cost for Nottingham
| Heating type | Est. kWh/yr | Est. cost/yr |
|---|---|---|
Infrared panels Low upfront cost, zonal on-demand heat, no maintenance. | 1,085 | £266 |
Air-source heat pump Lowest running cost (COP ~3.2) but high install cost; £7,500 grant. | 435 | £106 |
Gas central heating Cheap fuel today, but fossil and being phased out of new builds. | 1,546 | £96lowest |
Old electric / storage heaters What infrared usually replaces — resistive and always-on. | 1,391 | £341 |
Indicative estimates using the degree-day method, real local climate data and the current Ofgem price cap. Heat pumps show the lowest running cost because they move ~3× more heat per kWh — infrared's advantages are upfront cost, zonal control and zero maintenance, not kWh efficiency. Your actual costs depend on tariff, usage and building fabric.
How we design a warehouses system
Design starts with the occupied zones rather than the building volume. Packing benches, pick faces, goods-in desks and quality-control tables get radiant coverage; the aisles between racking usually do not. Mounting height drives panel or tube choice: below about 4 m, high-output panels aimed down work well, while above that, radiant tubes or quartz cassettes hold intensity at floor level. Each zone gets its own controller with an occupancy timer, so night shifts and weekend picking do not trigger the whole roof. Where racking blocks line of sight, heaters are re-aimed across the aisle rather than added.
Running costs in Nottingham
Warehouse economics come from run-time, not from any efficiency trick. A packing zone heated for a single eight-hour shift costs roughly a third of the same zone heated round the clock, so zoning and timers matter more than panel brand. Compare against your current gas warm-air spend per occupied hour rather than per square metre, because warm-air systems bill you for the roof void as well. Off-peak or half-hourly electricity tariffs and any on-site solar generation change the numbers materially, so we model both.
Infrared for warehouses in Nottingham: FAQs
Reviewed by the Infrared Heat Solutions technical team · Last updated July 2026 · Data sources: Open-Meteo (Nottingham 2024 climate), Ofgem price cap