Wallpaper that Heats

Plug-and-play thermal linings  

The best of the new thermal linings use graphene to prevent condensation on cold surfaces. At least that’s what the marketing materials claim. 

There’s something special about graphene. It's like the material Spiderman uses to make his synthetic webbing — super thin, super light, super flexible and 200 times stronger than steel. It was invented at the University of Manchester in 2004 and, six years later, the two inventors won the Noble Prize in Physics. Graphene also conducts heat like a boss. 

The magic happens when graphene-based heating elements are embedded into wallpaper. When you plug the wallpaper into a regular electrical socket (or wire it into the mains), the graphene starts pumping out infrared heat. Infrared heat doesn’t heat the air as much as it heats objects. Like people. And walls. When placed on a cold, damp-prone wall, graphene wallpaper will heat the wall it’s fixed to, making it almost impossible for mould to get a foothold.  

This type of thermal lining is significantly cheaper than installing a heat pump and easy to install (you can also use it on ceilings and floors as well), taking 2–3 days to complete the job. It heats rooms quickly, lowers fuel costs and emits no emissions (when powered by renewable electricity, like solar panels). 

Tests and trials 

Backed by the Welsh Government’s Optimised Retrofit Programme (ORP), Melin Homes (now Hedyn) partnered with Swansea University to verify the wallpaper’s heating efficacy as well as its energy savings. Performance was stellar.

• Residents noticed an increase in heat within 10 minutes

• Some cut their heating bills by nearly 50%

• Room temperatures rose from 17°C to 19°C while using less energy  

West of Scotland Housing Association (WSHA) began trials in 2023, putting NexGen graphene wallpaper in ten mid-century terraced homes in South Lanarkshire. Findings were staggering:  

• Residents reported feeling warmth from the wallpaper 10–15 minutes after turning it on

• Room temperature increased 2–4°C within an hour 

• Surface temperature of walls rose to 15°C above ambient room temperatures 

Further studies have gone on to prove that wallpaper laced with graphene works really well. And a few residents from the WSHA trial said the cost of using the graphene wallpaper – for around four hours a day – cost about £50 a month. Since heated walls retain heat well, four hours of use was all they needed to stay warm in their homes.

Warming lives in 2026 

There is no arguing: high-tech graphene wallpaper warms rooms and attacks mould before it starts. It’s a simple and proactive way to create warmer and healthier lives for social housing residents. 

For homes in your housing stock that are properly insulated, have great ventilation and retain heat well, graphene wallpaper is probably unnecessary. For other residences with stubbornly cold walls, regardless of the insulation, as well homes with damp walls that have not responded well to your crew’s efforts to put things right, wallpaper that heats could be a quick and relatively inexpensive solution to a long-standing problem.

Though Sureserve stands behind a fabric first, whole-house retrofit methodology, we have the experience to know that all homes do not respond the same way to retrofit work. For challenging homes in your HA’s housing stock that just won’t stay warm, graphene wallpaper appears to be a great solution.