Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater Review
A gorgeous-looking infrared heater
Verdict
A gorgeous-looking heater, the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater is flexible with floor, wall (landscape or portrait) or ceiling mount options. It’s super-efficient, using infrared to naturally warm a room and the people in it, with its onboard thermostat turning the panel off automatically. A useful smart app and voice assistant integration makes this heater easy to automate. I like the new onboard controls, as they make the heater quicker to operate; however, as the screen and buttons are at the back of the heater, some mounting positions may render them unusable.
Pros
- Excellent heat output
- Brilliant design
- Wall, floor or ceiling mount options
Cons
- Physical controls hard to reach in some mounting positions
- Gets very hot
Key Features
- TypeThis is an infrared heating panel, that can be mounted on a wall, floor or ceiling.
- Temperature controlPanel temperature can be set between 60°C and 120°C, with a target temperature set via the app or controls on the side.
Introduction
I was a big fan of the Aeno Premium Eco Smart Heater. Using infrared to warm a room, this smart, thin, heating panel was efficient and attractive, but it had one problem: no onboard controls, bar an on/off button.
The Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater fixes that, adding a temperature control box to the side of the panel.
That’s far more useful, although as the controls are behind the panel, they can be hard to reach, depending on which way around the panel is orientated.
Design and features
- Available in white or black
- Wall, floor or ceiling mount
- Control box with LED screen
One of the benefits of infrared heaters is that they’re far thinner than a comparative convection heater. Measuring just 11mm thick, the panel is incredibly thin, with only the control box at the back sticking out a little more.
At 1000 x 365 x 11mm, the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater is quite a big product and larger than a fan heater, such as the TCP Smart Heating Fan Heater Mini. However, the flexible installation options make the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater easier to deal with.
Out of the box, the heater can be mounted on feet, so it’s freestanding, or it can be wall-mounted in portrait or landscape orientation. For wall mounting, the panel’s slim body means it doesn’t take up much room. It is a gorgeous-looking heater, no matter where you place it.
As this panel uses infrared, it can also be ceiling mounted, although you’ll need to have this professionally done to make sure the heater is properly secured. And, you have to use the smart app to select the ceiling mount option, which turns off the heater’s tip-over protection.
Before placing the heater anywhere, there are some things to consider. First, as with all infrared heating panels, this one should not be blocked by objects, otherwise the infrared rays can’t penetrate into the room. Secondly, there’s the control panel to think about.
Mounted on the back, right of the heater (when in landscape mode), the new control box has a power button, controls to adjust the target temperature, an LED screen that shows you the current/target temperatures, and a smart button (this toggles the heater between being constantly on or switching off when the target temperature has been reached).
Mount the panel on the floor, and it’s fairly easy to peer around and use them. If the panel is wall-mounted in landscape mode with the control box near a corner, then you can’t see or use the controls easily. In portrait mode, the control panel is at the bottom of the panel, which may require you to lie on the floor to see and use the controls.
That’s not ideal, and it would make sense if the controls could have been mounted on the front of the panel, where they’d always be on display. With the Devola Smart WiFi Platinum 1.5kW Glass Panel Heater, for example, the screen is mounted on the panel. I’m not sure if that would be possible here, due to how thin the panel is, but the control box could have been extended past the rear of the heater to put the controls on the front.
It would also be nice if there were either a remote control in the box, or a set of optional wireless controls (the latter being particularly useful if the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater was ceiling mounted).
For remote control, you need to turn to the app. Aeno has its own app, but this is a Smart Life-compatible product, and I recommend using that app instead. That way, you can add other Smart Life products from different manufacturers and control them all from the same place.
From the app, you can toggle the Smart mode on and off, turn the panel on and off, and set a target temperature. Not only this, but the app also offers timers and schedules, so the heater can turn on and off when you need it, too.
There’s also a control to adjust the panel’s temperature between 60°C and 120°C, depending on the size of your space and the ambient temperature; when it’s very cold, the higher output is useful, whereas when there’s only a light chill, a lower temperature will do the job.
Add Smart Life to Amazon Alexa or Google Home, and you can control it with your voice, or set advanced routines, such as turning the heater on when motion is detected on a motion sensor. The latter is a particularly good idea, as the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater will only turn on when it detects occupancy in a room. As infrared is quick to heat a space (you’re looking at around 15 minutes), you really don’t need to preheat spaces before you enter them.
Performance
- Efficient heating
- Responds fast
- Heats quickly and directly
Suitable for rooms of up to 30m², the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater can handle most average-sized rooms, although for the largest rooms you may want a heater with a higher output.
Drawing a maximum of 700W, this heater is very efficient. In fact, 700W is similar to a 1.2kW convection heater. This is due to the way that the heater works. Rather than heating the air, it uses infrared waves that directly heat objects they meet, including you, your furniture, the walls and objects in the room (walls, books and so on).
This is important, as this heater feels more natural than using a convection heater: it’s akin to standing in the warm sun on a cold day. In use, that means that I started to feel warm way before the target temperature had been reached. And, as the infrared waves warm objects, the floor and my sofas were also warmed. Once the heater turns off, any warmed objects slowly release heat back into the room, keeping a comfortable environment. Overall, the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater is more comfortable to use than a convection heater.
On its lowest panel setting of 60°C, the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater draws 160W; on its maximum setting of 120°C, it uses 700W, although I saw power usage peak at 868W. Used in my well-insulated garden office, I found that the heater took just over an hour to raise the temperature from 17°C to 21°C, using just 0.4kWh of power (around 10.8p based on the price cap of 27p per kWh). Kept to this temperature all day, the heater used just 0.96kWh of power (25.92p) for the entire day.
The only thing to watch out for is that the front of the heater gets very hot, so be careful not to touch it while it’s on.
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Should you buy it?
You want efficient heating and onboard controls
Using infrared, this heater warms a room and the people in it naturally and efficiently, while its onboard controls make it quicker to control.
You want to place the heater where you can’t see its controls
If you want to ceiling mount or wall mount where the controls can’t be reached, an alternative heater may be a better choice.
Final Thoughts
Having onboard temperature controls does make the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater easier to use than the previous model, although that only applies if you can mount the heater somewhere the controls are easy to reach and see. If you can’t, then you may as well save £20 and buy the previous model instead, relying on the app or smart assistants for control.
For those that can use the controls, the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater is a great heater: it’s efficient, heats naturally and looks fantastic. After a cheaper heater, check out my guide to the best electric heaters.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every heater we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main heater for the review period
We measure the fan speed (if available) using an anemometer so that we can accurately compare performance between models
We measure the heat output of the fan and its effect on our test lab.
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FAQs
This version has temperature controls and an LED screen; the older version could only have its temperature set via the smart app.
It can be mounted on its feet (included) or the wall (brackets included), or with specialist installation, on the ceiling.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
