Basics of Infrared Heating

Even though infrared heating technology has been around for decades, it's still a relatively unknown concept in the HVAC industry. Infrared heating is similar to the sun in that it gently warms people, floors, and objects. As a result, these objects retain and re-radiant heat back into the space and not up to the ceiling or out the door like air heaters do. This translates into greater comfort and energy savings. Even the premier HVAC trade association, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), recognizes these facts and has recommended reducing building heat losses by fifteen to twenty percent when using infrared equipment. 
How is this accomplished? Infrared heat is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelength defined as infrared, is the portion of the spectrum, just beyond the visible red light.
Infrared heating utilizes all methods of heat transfer - radiation, convection, conduction, and absorption, most important of these is radiation. Our heaters radiate infrared radiation. This is the transfer of energy in wave form from a hot surface to relatively cooler surface without any means of heat transfer, such as air. It is a direct transfer of energy. The ability of an object to absorb infrared energy is also very important. Most materials within a building, such as concrete, metals, and water are highly absorptive. Therefore, making it ideal for heating with infrared. Conduction is the transfer of heat through a solid object. This allows the building to heat evenly by spreading the heat throughout objects and warming the air through convective energy from these warmed objects. These concepts combined cause the heating dynamics of a building to be different. The heat loss to obtain equivalent comfort is less. Therefore allowing the user of infrared heater to use less energy and install less heating capacity. 
Infrared heating systems consist of a burner, heat exchanger tube, and reflector. A flame is ignited. That flame is drawn down a highly emissive tube by a fan or pump and then a geometrically designed reflector directs heat down toward the floor. 
Easy to install, maintain, and operate. Infrared heating is clean, quiet and draft-free making it ideal for large spaces like warehouses, manufacturing areas, transportation facilities, airplane hangers and many more. Infrared heating is a win, win, win for building owners, occupants and installers alike. Roberts Gordon invented the first gas-fired low-intensity infrared heater and remains the leader today with the most efficient robust product offering in the industry.