Verdict
The Aeno Premium Eco Smart Heater is an infrared panel heater, which efficiently produces direct warmth with no smell and without drying out the air. Available in black or white, and suitable for horizontal or vertical wall mounting, and floor standing, it’s a very flexible panel heating. It warmed brilliantly in my tests, with the only major drawback that it doesn’t have physical controls bar an on/off switch.
Pros
- Looks great
- Multiple mounting options
- Heats evenly
Cons
- No physical temperature controls
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TypeThis is an infrared panel heater that can be wall, ceiling or floor mounted. -
Temperature controlPanel can be set between 60C and 120C, with target temperatures set via app.
Introduction
If there’s one problem with many electric heaters, it’s that they’re rather ugly and cheap looking. If you’re after something more stylish, the Aeno Premium Eco Smart Heater infrared panel heater could well be for you.
Low running costs, no compromises on looks and a huge range of installation options make this a brilliant choice for those that have room for it.
Design and features
- Available in black and white
- Smart control, but no physical controls
- Vertical, horizontal or floor standing
Available in black or white, the Aeno Premium Eco Smart Heater is just 11m thick, and finished in beautiful gloss glass. It looks fantastic and a step above the majority of panel heaters.
Measuring 1000 x 365 x 11mm, the heater does need a fair bit of space. A fan heater, such as the TCP Smart Heating Fan Heater Mini, doesn’t look quite as nice but does take up a lot less room.
Still, the Aeno Premium Eco Smart Heater at least has the advantage that it can be installed in multiple ways, with a choice of wall mounting (horizontal or vertical), or floor standing via the provided feet. The website even mentions ceiling mounting, although this will need to be done professionally for safety reasons.
Installation is easy, with a drilling template for wall mounting, and thumb screws to attach the brackets or feet.
Once plugged in, the heater is ready to go, with a power button mounted on the side. That’s it for physical controls, and there’s no way to set a target temperature via the radiator itself, which is a bit of a shame. The Princess Glass Smart Panel Heater, which uses a standard heating element, has an LCD screen and controls on the front.
Instead, the Aeno Premium Eco Smart Heater has to be controlled via the app. Aeno provides its own app, but the heater uses the Smart Life platform, so you can use the Smart Life app instead (just choose the installation option as the Wi-Fi heater).
Using Smart Life makes a lot of sense, as you can then control devices from multiple manufacturers, including Hey! and TCP, via the same app. And, in any case, the control interface and options are identical, regardless of whether you use the Aeno or Smart Life apps.
At its most basic, the heater can be turned on and off via the app. The default option just turns the panel on, letting it indefinitely heat a room. Switch to the smart option, and there’s a target temperature slider between 0C and 40C.
When the correct temperature has been reached, the panel turns off, turning back on when the temperature drops. This is a more efficient way to run the heater.
As well as manually controlling the heater, it can be set to run on a schedule or timer via the app.
The default setting has the panel heat up to its maximum temperature of 120C. However, there’s a slider in the app that lets you adjust this down to a minimum of 60C. This has two effects: first, energy consumption is reduced. Secondly, it means the panel doesn’t get scolding hot, which could be useful if you’ve got kids or pets.
Tipover protection is also in operation, with the panel turning off automatically and playing an alert sound if it’s dropped or knocked over.
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant Skills are available, providing on/off and temperature target voice controls.
Performance
- Power efficient
- Thermostat responds fast
- Infrared provides direct heating
This is an infrared heater, which directly heats objects in its path, rather than a convection heater. Infrared heaters are more efficient, as they work like the sun, heating you and objects (wall, bookcases, etc) evenly. Heated objects then radiate heat, making for a more comfortable environment than a convection heater or fan heater, which heats the air.
With a standard heater, not only do you get a channel of warmth, but the heaters dry out the air, making the environment less comfortable. With infrared, the air isn’t dried out, there’s no smell from the heating element and there’s no noise.
Typically speaking, an infrared heater can be up to 40% more efficient than a similarly specced ceramic or fan heater, even if the heat isn’t quite as instant.
This heater is rated at 700W, and I measured it at a maximum draw of 794W. Rather than this being continuous, the heater turns on for bursts of time to maintain the target panel temperature. Set to 60C, the element isn’t on very much; set to 120C, the heating element has to be used more often.
According to Aeno, the heater uses 160Wh when set to 60C, and 700Wh when set to 120C. Using the heater at 60C, it took 1h 19m to raise the temperature of my room from 19C to 22C, using just 0.332kWh.
I felt the benefit of infrared heating, too. With the panel 1.5m away, I felt nice and warm, but there’s not the blast of hot hair that I get from a fan heater, so it feels more natural.
This heater is designed for rooms up to 30m2, so will handle medium-to-large rooms easily enough.
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Should you buy it?
If you want a smart-looking and efficient electric panel heater, then this is a great option.
If you don’t have the wall space or want a device with manual controls, look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Gorgeous looking and with flexible installation options, the Aeno Premium Eco Smart Heater efficiently heats you and the room, thanks to its infrared heating element. It’s very efficient and heats more naturally than a traditional fan or convection heater. The only downside is that there aren’t manual controls on it, so fine-tuning temperature requires using the app. If you need a different size or type of 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.
FAQs
This panel heater can be mounted horizontally or vertically on a wall, placed on feet on the ground or professionally ceiling mounted.
It has an on/off switch, other controls are via the app.
Sustainability
TrustedReviews holds the fact that global warming is not a myth as a core value and will continuously endeavour to help protect our planet from harm in its business practices.
As part of this mission, whenever we review a product, we send the company a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the device has on the environment.
We currently haven’t received answers to the questions on this product, but we will update this page the moment we do. You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability info page.
