Are Infrared Heaters Comfortable for People?

Let’s answer the question – when does a person feel cold? The answer is when the loss of heat is not compensated by internal or external heat sources. When does a person feel warm? When the loss of heat is more than compensated by internal or external heat sources. The heat comfort appears when the heat loss is balanced by internal or external heat sources. A person in a quite state has such a comfort, for example, at an air temperature of +23 to +24C. The same comfort may occur at an air temperature of -10C for a running man. If he runs fast at air temperature of +24C he can quickly become overheat. The fact is that the human body releases from 50-60W (in a quiet state) to 600-770W (in a heavy physical activity state) of heat energy, which must be compensated by the heat losses from the external environment.

Why do we have the limit of 30W/m2 as per the standards? If we assume that the average person’s area is 1.6 m², so released energy of the body even in a quiet state will be 60W/1.6=37.5 W/m. So to avoid overheat a person must get from the outside not more than this amount. And if he’s working hard, he needs to give out even more energy. Then we need to think about ventilation, means of protection and comfortable temperature in this room.

Why shouldn’t we be afraid of getting extra heat from an infrared heater? It is very simple. The infrared heater must be controlled by a thermostatic switch which will work exactly as much as it is necessary for a person to balance heat losses. If a person becomes hot, he either turns off the infrared heater (or any other heater) or decreases the temperature of a thermostatic switch, i.e. he will receive exactly as much heat energy from outside as he requires to feel comfortable. Air temperature is not that much important in this case. Temperature comfort is more important and it can be achieved at ambient temperature of +23C or -10C.

Ideally infrared heating systems will be controlled not by a thermostatic switch with air sensors in the future but by sensors installed on the human body. It means that power of the heater will be regulated strictly in accordance with the needs of the body to compensate for heat loss.