What if you could easily and almost instantly regulate warmth just like lighting? A Finnish-based firm has developed a novel concept of an intelligent warming wall, a digital warming surface product. Its Halia radiant warmers offer fast response, enabling near real-time warmth. You can use Halia to warm only the regions you require when you require it. This means there will be no more energy waste or pointless heating of vacant spaces.

Warming Surfaces Company, headquartered in Oulu, wants "digitalising heating for the age of sustainability, minimising the amount of materials used in heating systems and reducing heating energy consumption", it said in a statement.  

Increasingly stringent zero-emission requirements of buildings

The firm's product, created for usage in interior surfaces, assists in meeting the increasingly stringent zero-emission requirements of buildings. 

The modest panelling found on most dressers, desks, and floors has been given a radical makeover, courtesy of the Finnish startup that has embedded a paper-thin metal mesh within it to turn your furniture or walls into energy-efficient radiant heaters. 

The Warming Surfaces Company is the brainchild of a spin-off from Finland's government-owned R&D centre, VTT. The latter's engineers have been working in the field of flexible printed electronics for more than two decades, leading to the birth of this groundbreaking innovation. 

The roots of the technology can be traced back to a military context. The Finnish military, in need of heat-emitting decoys to dupe potential attackers, had approached VTT researchers for assistance. The aim was to create illusions of tanks and other equipment in the night through heat emissions from large surfaces.

In the process of creating this military subterfuge, the VTT researchers realised that the technology they were developing had much broader applications, including warming homes and offices. 

"We started fitting this into furniture and interior surface materials and saw, wow, there's potential here," says Jani-Mikael Kuusisto, the co-founder of the Warming Surfaces Company, which officially launched last autumn.

The unique low-voltage heating elements in Halia are less than one millimetre, or 1/25th of an inch thick, allowing them to be discreetly integrated into a wide array of materials, including fabric. These slender elements are strategically placed near the surface over large areas, enabling them to heat a room almost instantly. 

Kuusisto explains the functionality of the technology, describing how each individual heat 'pixel' is linked to a central processing unit that is connected to the grid or a battery for electric power. When connected to sensors, either embedded in the material or via a standard home automation system, the heat can be deployed only when required. 

Finnish startup has embedded a paper-thin metal mesh within it to turn your furniture or even walls into energy-efficient radiant heaters. Image: Warming Surfaces Company.

"Your surroundings sense when you're in the room, or approaching, and it turns on the temperature to the level that you prefer," says Kuusisto. "It's really a fast response. It's not immediate, like lighting, but we're talking tens of seconds to reach your desired temperature." 

Aside from its speed and responsiveness, this heating technology also boasts a handful of other advantages over traditional systems. Like other forms of radiant heating, it can heat a space more uniformly than typical forced air systems, and without the added distraction of noisy blowing fans. And, unlike some heat pumps, it doesn't take up any space or become an eyesore on your wall. 

Unlike some heat pumps, it doesn't take up any space or become an eyesore on your wall. Image: Warming Surfaces Company.

Warming Surfaces Company is collaborating with Surforma, a laminate manufacturer based in Portugal, and Grupo Casais, a construction company, to test new products incorporating the technology. Kuusisto says that one of the initial applications is likely to be office furniture. There will also be construction pilots commencing this autumn in Portugal. 

"The manufacturing has been fully proven," he says. "Now, it's a matter of scaling it to the needs of the furniture and construction-materials industry." Since the technology requires minimal material, it is expected to be cheaper to manufacture than other heating tech." 

These slender elements are strategically placed near the surface over large areas, enabling them to heat a room almost instantly. Image: Warming Surfaces Company.

It also promises low installation costs as it can be directly incorporated into building materials or furniture. The pilot programmes in Portugal will provide valuable data on operating cost and performance. 

In regions with milder winters like Portugal, this technology could effectively maintain comfort in an office or room without the need for additional heating sources. The company aims to unveil the first products equipped with this technology by 2024. 

It also promises low installation costs as it can be directly incorporated into building materials or furniture. Image: Warming Surfaces Company.

Kuusisto has big hopes for the role of Halia in promoting more sustainable building practices. He points out that nearly two-thirds of energy used by European households is for heating. This tech could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of buildings by providing a more energy-efficient method of heating.

Technology based on pixelated warming materials

Radiant heat is the foundation of Halia warming. A variety of interior surface materials incorporate low voltage 'pixelated' warming elements. Large-scale positioning near the surface makes managing heating as simple and real-time as adjusting lights.

The firm has joined with laminate firms to efficiently integrate Halia warmers into surfaces, reducing the impact on the original material’s properties, such as bending, stretching, or breathability. The system is also devoid of any plastics or bonding films.  

According to the firm, the flexibility and thinness of Halia open up numerous possibilities to design creative warming elements for living and working spaces. "The heating elements in Halia digital warming surface technology are below 0.1 millimetres thick, which makes it possible to integrate them inside building materials, such as laminate floors, doors, and walls, and even in furniture and interior textiles."

An energy-efficient offering for the future

The United Nation’s Cities Report 2022 estimates that 200,000 new inhabitants will move into cities daily by 2050. According to the firm, all the buildings cannot be built as resource-intensively as today, while such solutions provide affordable and sustainable warmth for everybody with low energy and material consumption.

The European Parliament proposed policies in March 2023 to speed up renovations to lower building energy use and carbon emissions. Currently, heating homes use 63% of the energy used by EU households.

Additionally, the building industry is responsible for almost 40% of all worldwide CO2 emissions. By 2030, the EU will need to remodel 35 million buildings to make them more energy-efficient.