Mill NE1200WIFI Heater Review
Mill is a Norwegian brand enabling an even deeper integration of the smart-home concept. From their line-up of heaters, we have the Mill NE1200WIFI (also known as the Invisible), that not only promises 1:1 energy efficiency but also style, and the ability to be controlled from anywhere in the world via a smartphone.
Design
Wall panel heaters have been badly designed since the beginning of time and are guilty of dampening the spirits in their surrounding spaces for far too long. They are often bulky, disorderly to look at and become so warm they can proceed to pose a danger. Conversely the Mill NE1200WIFI Heater is none of these things. It features a pleasingly sculpted appearance from Eker Design, that has only enhanced our wooden cabin hallway since its installation, with a sleekness that doesn’t intrude on walking space. Added to this its exterior front panel never gets warm enough to cause harm to skin.
Installation is a doddle. Fix the brackets to the wall and then hang the Mill Heater. One design imperfection that we thought could be improved was the placement of the plug so it could be interchangeable for left and right plug sockets. As our socket was on the left but the plug is on the right, we needed to attach the cable along the wall under the heater in order to hide its 130cm length.
Definitely Smart
The Millheat app, available for iOS and Android, is the master control for single or multiple Mill heaters, as well as a physical temperature control on top of the heater itself. Imperative for the set-up is that the heater is installed in an area with Wi-Fi coverage, as each heater requires a connection in order to be controlled. After around 3-4 minutes the Mill panel is connected to your network via the guidance of their fairly well designed app and can now be controlled from anywhere in the world!
In addition to many singular settings, the programmed cycles are really the cornerstone purpose of the app and where the greatest energy savings can be made. Comfort, sleep, away and off are the four fractions that you can specify the target temperature for and then divide the time of operation of each into a programme by simply sliding them within a timeframe as illustrated for each day of the week. Whilst it’s really nice to have our cabin heated around the routine hours we occupy it, the beauty of having control from anywhere, as we’ve already discovered, is when you discover you will arrive earlier than expected. So, a quick tap of the app to note the ambient temperature and we can decide to override the programme, guaranteeing we’re never entering a cold cabin.
Does it warm up our cabin effectively?
So here’s a little back story; previous to the Mill NE1200WIFI Heater being installed we had an oil-filled heater occupying our well insulated wooden cabin. It heated the space effectively but seemed to be constantly operative. Understandably the element takes quite a while to heat the oil to the set temperature in such a design, which means there is little downtime if the ambient temperature fluctuates, as it constantly needs to heat the oil to penetrate heat into the air, and this is time-consuming and therefore costly. Strictly speaking, the energy you put into heating ideally needs to produce equivalent energy out in the heat produced, thus using less operating time which is better for our energy bills.
Which is why, in well insulated spaces like our cabin area, we have noticed that the Mill design, incorporating an aluminium heating element, has just zapped heat into the air for a few minutes when it’s really necessary to bring the temperature up to the target. It has honestly been a rarity to actually catch sight of the Mill being operative, and when the thermostat clicks on it has an almost silent operation which was not true of the oil heater it replaced. Furthermore, the ultra effective thermostat, in comparison to other heater designs we’ve used, did initially make us think: Is this actually going to keep our cabin warm? But after consulting the app and judging for ourselves over the past month of usage, the target temperatures for our programmes are always exact or over by a few degrees from the outside environment in the autumn and winter. Meaning we were previously wasting energy just leaving an oil heater ticking over for no good reason. Which neatly brings us on to the fact that, at its full 1200 watts of power output, this design from Mill, with heat dispensing from the top grill, doesn’t actually allow the white steel body remains cool to touch, so doesn’t get anywhere near as dangerously warm as you would find with centrally heated or oil-filled radiators.
Verdict
The Mill NE1200WIFI Heater is an intelligent solution for heating well insulated spaces like our cabin. Its ability to be controlled with a smartphone from anywhere is extremely handy and the detailed heating programmes make having a comfortable living environment around busy routines straightforward. Not to forget that Mill have created a wall panel heater that we think is the first of its kind, in adding interesting and calming design notes to spaces, whilst at the same time taking up little space with its ultra-slim lines.