Infrared Heaters - Insights

Source emissivity, is the source a black body or not?  Type of energy source driving the infrared heater....either electric or natural gas propane and other combustible gases. Internal or external reflective elements.  Radiative dispersion angles from heater and waste heat spill off etc.

Existing designs are good, only the application areas need better understanding in influencing the selection, design, installation and saving the valuable resources at current cost of operation for big and small companies.

Natural Gas as Fuel giving a far better final result and economy saving.

i like SPACE-RAY, but I've used Reverberay, Schwank, Reznor etc.  They are all good.

I work with Russian and Ukrainian suppliers. They developed innovative solution for total area heating using infrared film for ceiling or floor. Web pages in English are not available yet.

The ones I have come across are process ovens applying an even heat to cure surface coatings that rely on a metal temperature of around 200c for approx 10- 20 min.

Heating building spaces. I also maintain large commercial process ovens to bake on dispersion fluoropolymer coatings.The ovens are gas convection, but I looked into infrared heating as a new heat source.

I have two in use at two of the fire stations I maintain.  They hang in the apparatus floor where the fire trucks sit - one is new the other is very old and I have a hard time getting parts for it.

For heating greenhouses- speeds up the growth about 40%.  Sauna for horses, baking bread, preparing food.

Ultrafast film heater for high temperature heating above 1000C. Heating time is about 30 microsecond.

Ecological drying chambers for plants and fruits used in traditional medicine.

Fires or destroyed products and equipment always being an issue. In particular, when product temperature feedback controls are not working correctly etc.

The cost to run the heat at the new station was more than the 3 stations we closed, so we had to take control of the temp.

Not really. Some systems are installed wrongly, which resulted in excess electricity consumption.

Integration into fireplace look or stove look maybe, but that all drives up the cost. Remember most people still like simple, and these units are on wheels and totally portable even for older folks.

When used as a space heater, be aware of burnable items close to heat source.

Make sure your house has good thermo insulation.

Listen to real people who tell you the truth about exactly what it is. There can be some issues with small children putting their faces into the outlet to see the pretty red inside, and then plastic straws inserted. All kinds of good stuff, and yes even adults can sit too close sometimes, because it is a very comforting type heat, but the wave length used can still give you a nice kind of sunburn type redness. Had a friend who put one right beside his head on the couch,and fell asleep watching the tube. Had a very red face on one side after about 10 hours of sleep. The furnace was about one foot away. He is a trucker, came in cold and tired. this is how that happened. No lasting effect, but was funny.