Euronews.green writes that the project is a collaboration effort between the University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, West of Scotland Housing Association and Glasgow City Council. Experts installed the electric wallpapers in 12 apartments located in the Scottish city to assess how effective the system can be at providing heat to a home.

Scottish homes are some of Europe's worst when it comes to thermal comfort, as they typically lose the heat three times faster than other homes on the continent. Since Scots use fossil-powered central heating systems to keep warm at home in 84% of the cases, this is also associated with a high carbon footprint. In fact, 36% of the UK's carbon footprint comes from residential heating.

Councilman Ruairi Kelly of Glasgow City Council said that "innovative pilot projects such as this are vital when considering how best to help tackle the issues of energy costs and emissions in Glasgow’s homes."

This solution could come in handy for other cold-stricken European cities, such as those located in the North or even in Central and Eastern Europe, where winters can still be harsh at times.

But how do electric wallpapers even work? According to experts, they use copper strips and graphene or carbon to create a thin surface which conducts electricity. These devices emit infrared, heating the room they are installed in without any carbon footprint and are even said to offer other benefits, such as mold and humid-free heating. This in turn improves the air quality.

NextGen Heating, a company that is specialized in developing these electric wallpapers, says that they can be installed on the ceiling and provide heating within two or three minutes of starting them up. The wallpapers used for the project have been installed in Scottish apartments built before 1919.

"We have been trialing this technology for a few months now and have had excellent feedback from our tenants where this has been installed", says Andrew Kubski, director of development and asset management for West of Scotland Housing Association.

If proven to be a success, the project can be carried to other cities and even countries, reducing the CO2 footprint associated with heating our homes.