34 | MAY 2019
INSTALLER ZONE
GETTING WARMER…
ENERGY-SAVING THERMOCILL
An eco-friendly product that can
warm up a room quicker than normal
has been unveiled – and it’s made
entirely from recycled plastic waste
including plastic bottle tops.
Award-winning inventor Keith
Rimmer is launching Thermocill –
a simple, easy to install, cost-sav-
ing way of redirecting heat in a
room – at the FIT Show at the
NEC in Birmingham in May.
Thermocill is a device that is
placed under the window board
and above the radiator in a
room. Thermocill directs natural
convection from the radiator to
help create a wall of warm air
immediately in front of the in-
ternal side of the glazed window
preventing heat loss and cold air
entering the room.
Keith has teamed up with Brian
Lavery, of Camden Group – one
of the largest independent man-
ufacturer and supplier of uPVC
windows and doors to trade cus-
tomers in the UK and Ireland.
Brian, whose products are
made of 80% recycled materials,
will have the sole rights to manu-
facture Thermocill in the UK and
will offer licence agreements to
chosen suppliers.
Thermocill, patent pending (No
1820279.6) and trademarked, is
aimed at the housing market
and can be fitted retrospectively
in any existing home or to new
builds.
Mechanical engineer Keith,
who won an Ernst & Young North
West Entrepreneur of the Year
Award for EcoPod, said: “Thermo-
cill is manufactured from plastic
waste including plastic bottle
tops and when operating doesn’t
use any form of energy itself. It is
a truly sustainable environmental
product with carbon savings all
the way.
“It can help you warm up a
room quicker than normal pro-
viding thermal comfort which
means you use less energy. The
reason for this is that the re-di-
rected heat targets the cold spot
in the room being the double
glazed unit, of either your pres-
ent window or of any new window
that may be installed.”
The figures are based on
Keith’s own product tests in-
cluding thermal imaging reports.
But Thermocill is currently being
examined by experts at Salford
University and the Carbon Trust
Inventor Keith Rimmer with his
new innovation Thermocill
who he believes will confirm his
findings, Thermocill even alle-
viates condensation from the
internal glazed unit which is a
problem of many newly efficient
window systems.
Thermocill extends from
125mm to 250mm fitting the
most common size window
boards and comes in three width
sizes 500mm, 300mm and
100mm, all of which can be used
as a multiple to fit the majority
of window sizes.
The rear ventilation outlet of
Thermocill is also adjustable to
allow different thicknesses of
decorative window board finishes
– timber, MDF, plastic or con-
glomerate and tiled finishes from
10mm to 26mm.
When Thermocill is fitted apart
from the outlet grill at the back
of the window board no part will
be on show. The ‘eureka’ moment
when Keith landed on the idea of
creating and developing Thermo-
cill happened when he called at a
friend’s home for a cup of tea.
The inventor revealed: “I was
sitting in the lounge. It was a cold
night and I was looking towards
the window and noticed the
vertical blinds moving. My friend
said: ‘What’s up Keith?’ and I just
said ‘I’ve got an idea.’
Keith said: “I could see the
convection of warm air from the
radiator was trying to get to the
window, but it couldn’t get there.
I went to my car and got my dig-
ital thermometer and took some
readings around the window area
and within 10 minutes I had the
idea for Thermocill in my head.”
“I came into the window indus-
try by accident which was eye
opening, but also to solve a prob-
lem that he had faced for years
– heat loss from glazed units.
When designing a heating sys-
tem, the major factor was always
the size of the window. Specifi-
ers, rightly so, wanted rooms with
large windows to allow as much
natural light as possible.
“But this comes at a cost. More
heat is required in the space so
larger heating appliances and
emitters are needed to accom-
modate this plus good insulation
in wall cavities, floor slabs etc.
But the cold spot in the room is
still there. That’s where Ther-
mocill addresses the issue by
creating a wall of warm air.”
And Keith believes Thermo-
cill will be as ground-breaking
as the EcoPod heating system
he invented almost 10 years
ago. The system achieved huge
energy savings and cut carbon
production.