Office heating: per-desk comfort without the thermostat war
The office heating question changed in 2020 and most systems never caught up. When occupancy swings between 20% and 90% week to week, the winning system is the one you can turn down in halves — not the one with the best headline efficiency.
What is the right heating system for a office?
For a typical UK office of 100–150 m², the deciding factors are zoning and control rather than fuel: an open-plan floor on one thermostat wastes more money than any choice between gas, electric or heat pump.
The problem with office heating
Hybrid working broke the old assumption of a full floor. You now heat a whole open-plan floorplate for a handful of people, and one central thermostat can never suit both the window desks and the core.
Zoning strategy: Zone by desk cluster and meeting room so unoccupied areas hold a setback temperature only.
Options compared
| System | Verdict | Upfront | Running |
|---|---|---|---|
Infrared / radiant panels Ceiling or wall panels per zone, silent, with no maintenance contract or plant room. | Best fit | Low | Medium |
Air conditioning in heat-pump mode Efficient and gives cooling too, but noisier and needs annual F-gas servicing. | Viable | Medium | Low |
Gas central heating Fine for a full floor, poor at part-occupancy because zoning is coarse. | Viable | High | Low fuel cost |
Portable electric heaters The default fix in cold offices and the most expensive heat available. | Poor fit | Low | Very high |
Indicative annual heating cost — 120 m², average / part-insulated
Degree-day method at UK average 2000 HDD, Ofgem price cap (indicative, 2026). Whole-space figures — zoning typically cuts these substantially.
- Infrared panels£1,871/yr
- Air-source heat pump£750/yr
- Gas central heating£675/yr
- Old electric / storage heaters£2,399/yr
What office heating costs to install
- Meeting room or small private office£450 – £1,200
One or two panels on a local thermostat.
- Open-plan floor (100–200 m²)£3,500 – £9,000
Zoned ceiling panels with scheduled and occupancy control.
- Multi-floor fit-out£15,000+
Phased floor by floor around occupied working hours.
How to size office heating
| Situation | Sizing guide |
|---|---|
| Cellular office (10–20 m²) | 0.6–1.2 kW radiant panel per room with local control; 21–23 °C is the usual comfort band for sedentary work. |
| Open-plan floor | Zone by orientation — south-facing desks overheat while north-facing ones are cold on the same setpoint. |
| Meeting rooms | Fast-response radiant on occupancy or booking-linked control; these rooms are empty most of the day. |
| Reception and entrance | Radiant over the greeting position plus a door strategy; ambient heating alone loses to every door opening. |
| Server or comms rooms | Cooling problem, not a heating one — exclude from the heating zone entirely. |
Disruption and installation time
Electric radiant panels are usually installed out of hours over a weekend, floor by floor, with ceiling-grid units dropped into existing tiles. No wet works, no flushing, no flue. A boiler or fan-coil replacement is a longer programme and normally needs a decant or a phased floor-by-floor shutdown.
Regulations and approvals that apply to offices
- Workplace regulations reasonable-temperature guidance and the ACOP 16 °C minimum for sedentary work.
- Approved Document Part L for replacing fixed building services, including controls provisions.
- EPC and MEES: a rented commercial property must normally reach EPC E or better to be let, and heating choices move that rating.
- BS 7671 electrical installation, plus landlord and licence-to-alter consent in leased space.
- CIBSE Guide A comfort criteria where a tenant fit-out specifies conditions.
Guidance summary only — confirm the current requirement with your local authority, inspector or a qualified engineer before ordering work.
Expensive mistakes in office heating
- One thermostat for a whole floor with different solar exposure on each side.
- Leaving a system on building hours when occupancy is now hybrid and half the desks are empty midweek.
- Installing electric heating in leased space without checking the EPC consequence.
- Buying panels on wattage alone with no thought to mounting height above desks.
- Ignoring the cost of the personal fan heaters that appear when zoning is wrong.
When radiant heating is the wrong answer
A large, well-insulated office with continuous full occupancy and an existing wet system in good order is usually cheaper to run on a heat pump or condensing boiler than on electric radiant. Radiant fits cellular offices, hybrid occupancy, converted or listed premises, and floors where extending the wet system is impractical.
What to ask before you sign
- How many control zones, and what drives them — timers, occupancy or booking system?
- What effect does the proposal have on the building's EPC rating?
- What mounting positions are proposed relative to desks and lighting?
- How will out-of-hours and hybrid occupancy be handled?
- What is the projected annual cost per zone on our actual tariff?
Office heating: FAQs
Reviewed by the Infrared Heat Solutions technical team · Last updated July 2026 · Data sources: Open-Meteo, Ofgem, Energy Saving Trust