Electric Infrared Heaters
If a great idea of building an infrared sauna in your own office or house has come to your mind, you need a lot of interesting information on electric infrared heaters that you are likely to find appropriate for the realization of your idea.
You probably have no intention to build an infrared sauna, but want to find out how these strange devices work… Okay, read on to find out.
Basics
- Forms. Infrared electric heaters are usually composed of plates or flat, thin sheets. It is very important for the efficiency of electric infrared heater. The radiation is successfully emitted if the infrared heater is tall and really wide. Some electric infrared heaters are made in the form of incoloy rods, however heaters of this kind have small efficiency, because of the small surface area that they cover.
- Materials. What materials are used to produce electric infrared heaters? The answer is steel, ceramic and carbon fiber. Carbon fiber infrared heaters are the most common, but does it obviously mean they are the best. Emissivity is an essential category that defines the quality of a heater. Emissivity shows how efficient is the material for emitting infrared light. Emissivity of materials ranges from 0 to 1.0. According to the researches ceramic heaters are the best, as they possess highest emissivity value. Ceramic heaters produce really healthy infrared light.
- 3. Placement of the heating elements. For an infrared sauna to be efficient heating elements should be placed correctly. It is obvious that several heaters produce more even heat, in other words “the blanket of heat” is of better quality. Infrared rays cannot reach objects situated far from the source of infrared light, that’s why it is better to have them closer to feel real warmth. Sauna users should be surrounded by heaters so that they could absorb the heat from all directions.
- Infrared sauna vs. traditional sauna. How do traditional saunas work? There is a box in the sauna that is filled with hot rocks or coals. These rocks or coal reach surface temperatures of up to 180 to 220 degrees F. For a traditional sauna to operate at full blast, it needs some thirty-ninety minute warm up. In comparison with infrared saunas traditional saunas are much difficult to handle. Electric infrared heaters heat objects and not air. It makes infrared sauna more efficient and quicker. Surface temperature of infrared heaters is between 110 – 140 degrees F and warm-up duration is 20 minutes. Shorter warm-up period and lower surface temperatures make infrared electric heaters more cost-efficient (by some 30%-50%)
Heating elements. It is as clear as a day that infrared heater elements bring about changes in the sauna look. As they work in a different way compared with traditional ones, saunas should be constructed in accordance with the peculiarities of their operation. It is very important for electric infrared heaters efficiency.