Quartz Infrared Heaters

Here is a previous discussion:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/27042

Friends who have tried quartz hearers have been disappointed. If you are in the direct path of the radiation, you are sufficiently warmed on one side of your body. When you move away from the direct path, the rest of the room is cold. 1500W is not sufficient to warm the entire room, let alone the rest of the house, evenly unless the heater is constantly rotating and will still require a LOOONG time to bring the temperature up sufficiently on a cold day. As a supplement to a central heating system for a local zone (the couch area in front of the television for instance), maybe.

You will be disappointed in trying this......

Not enough watts...........your TV probably puts out about a thousand watts.

MR. GUY

Draught excluder and insulation are worth buying to reduce energy costs. As are non-incandescent lighting devices, time-switches, occupancy detectors, jug kettles, pressure-cookers.....

clb111,

This type of heating is by direct radiation, similar to that achieved with sunlight or a burning fire. As others have pointed out, the exposed surfaces (you or objects) will be warmed up, while the surrounding air and unexposed surfaces are not directly heated. Thus, I would expect the quartz tube type heaters to be useful if you have an open area exposed to considerable air flow and want to heat the people or surfaces there. As a supplemental source of heat, one could be helpful and make the environment quite comfortable (such as while sitting on a couch in a sedentary activity) even though the ambient air temperature is 10+ degrees below the normal comfort zone.

As with other forms of energy input into a dwelling, you need to balance the heat loss against the heat gain. By heating surfaces and keeping the air and outside wall temperatures lower you can decrease the heat loss through the walls but still remain comfortable.

I cannot give you a definitive answer. Hopefully the above is a guide as to how and when such radiant heat is effective and efficient. Then, you can consider whether this will work in your particular application and environment.

--JMM