Electric Wall Heater Market

The global market for electric wall heaters is driven by the growing demand for energy efficient products and the rapidly changing lifestyles and urbanization across residential and non-residential applications. However, the growth of the market may be hindered by the easy availability of low-cost alternatives for electric wall heaters.

The adoption of energy efficient products is essential for achieving energy goals such as improved energy security and access, reduced air pollution and fuel consumption, and industrial competitiveness. These products help the end users consume less energy and also meet the energy needs of their homes, offices, factories, and cars. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, introducing policies for improving energy efficiency can reduce oil imports, improve the reliability of the US electric grid, save money, reduce air pollution, create jobs, and reduce prices. Moreover, the Department of Energy (DOE) in the US regulates the federal energy efficiency standards for electrical products and appliances that are associated with residential/consumer, commercial, and lighting applications to ensure that producers manufacture and sell energy-efficient products. This is expected to increase the sale of electrical appliances.

In 2018, the European Union (EU) introduced a regulation to provide a clear and simple indication of the energy efficiency of products at the point of purchase. Under this regulation, the manufacturers, suppliers, importers, and authorized representatives need to register their electrical appliances in the European Product Database for Energy Labelling (EPREL) before selling them in the European market. With this introduction, the EU is focusing on helping consumers save money on their household energy bills, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the EU. Additionally, the result of these standards on the electrical products is expected to save nearly 175 Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent) energy by 2020. This is expected to increase the demand for energy efficient electrical appliances.

In Asia-Pacific, the governments in several countries have established a voluntary collaboration with the US and Europe to promote the manufacture, purchase, and use of energy-efficient appliances, lighting, and equipment through the super-efficient equipment and appliance deployment (SEAD) initiative. Moreover, the constant efforts taken by the governments and regulatory bodies have resulted in several significant strategic collaborations between various energy efficiency agencies. For instance, in 2017, India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) collaborated with SEAD and developed a mobile application for the consumers. This mobile application provides consumers on-demand access to the data regarding the energy performance of appliances listed in BEE's star label database. Consumers can easily compare labeled products before making a purchasing decision with the help of this application. Such government initiatives are expected to drive the market during the forecast period. Thus, the impact of the demand for energy-efficient products on the market is expected to shift from moderate to high over the forecast period.

Electric wall heaters are the heating units that are installed in or attached directly to a wall. These heaters are the next version of gas heaters and consist of a metal body and an internal heating element. The earlier versions of electric wall heaters involved the use of porcelain bricks. However, due to the evolution of technology, the recent versions of wall heaters are designed with tubes or coils. The rapid technological advancements in the electric wall heaters have led the manufacturers to design convenient heaters that offer benefits, such as quick functioning, supplemental heating, automatic temperature controlling, compact designs, and easy installation and maintenance. Moreover, manufacturers are enhancing the designs of existing electric wall heaters so that they provide better safety, durability, and quiet functioning.

The concept of smart electric wall heater technologies has created an opportunity for the electric wall heater manufacturers to use smart components within the heater that can be controlled by means of sensors. In addition, introducing smart thermostats in the electric wall heaters to provide a user-friendly experience to the consumers, is expected to create a huge positive impact on the electric wall heater market, during the forecast period. Smart thermostats enable the heaters to systematically control the temperature and energy consumption. The manufacturers are focusing on integrating smart thermostats within the electric wall heaters, which could save nearly 56 trillion British thermal unit (BTUs) of energy and offset 13 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, every year. Thus, the integration of smart components enables the users to regulate the electric wall heaters as per their requirements and also reduces excessive energy consumption.

The manufacturers are working on enhancing the existing electric wall heater designs and introducing new energy efficient technologies to meet the energy emission standards set by the respective regulatory bodies and agencies. Thus, the development of smart electric wall heater technologies might be a growth opportunity for the global electric wall heater market during the forecast period.

The costs associated with electric wall heaters are high as compared to the conventional wall heaters. Additionally, the various measures taken to improve the product and eliminate interruptions due to blown fuses, incorrect thermostat settings, tripped circuit breakers, and the use of counterfeit heater components raises the cost of the systems. Moreover, the introduction of alternatives such as heat pumps, gas wall heaters, and water wall heaters, which have low refueling costs is another factor that is hindering the demand for electric wall heaters. Furthermore, the high cost of electricity makes electric wall heaters more expensive to operate than their alternatives.

Electric wall heaters are more prone to the risk of malfunctioning and fire breakouts due to their higher heating requirements and constant heat emission. Additionally, electric wall heaters, especially those with built-in thermostats, can produce inconsistent heat or have difficulty maintaining a set temperature. This makes customers prefer cost-effective alternatives over electric wall heaters. Thus, the high costs associated with operating and maintaining the electric wall heaters could restrain the market growth during the forecast period. Thus, the impact of the availability of cost-effective alternatives on the market is expected to shift from high to moderate by the end of the forecast period.

The district heating solutions are responsible for delivering heating, hot water, and cooling services through a network of insulated pipes, from a central point of generation to the end user. They are also known as heat networks or district heating and cooling networks. These networks can be operated using renewable and low-carbon energy sources and waste heat from industry and commercial buildings as well as heat from combined heat and power plants. A central plant in the district heating solution system transfers hot and cool water via a network of underground pipes to many buildings. Additionally, the district heating solutions provides thermal energy more efficiently.

District heating solution systems are capable of meeting the residential and commercial demand and retain the demand for the heating network at the base-level. This results in optimal utilization of their operational efficiency. Meanwhile, the electric wall heaters can cater to limited applications in the residential and commercial sectors. Moreover, the electric wall heaters often malfunction as their connectivity requires long cables/cords and no ducting. On the other hand, district heating solutions offer advantages such as flexible building designs, lower operations and maintenance costs, better energy delivery, enhanced comfort, and reduced carbon footprints. Thus, the district heating solutions are expected to limit the use of electric wall heaters and reduce their demand during the forecast period.