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Which heating is better between infrared and gas?

  • Phormalab
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There are many factors to take into account when comparing gas and infrared heating systems. You’ll quickly realize that heating powered by electricity can, in fact, be much cheaper in the long run.

Maybe it’s time to consider a more efficient way to heat the outdoor spaces of your bar, restaurant or even your private home. For a better, cleaner, more modern and more efficient central heating system, infrared heating is rapidly becoming a popular alternative to other conventional electric heating systems. As people recognize the many advantages that infrared has over other types of systems such as cost effectiveness, looks, thermal comfort, and numerous health benefits.

With the advent of the search for greener technologies, infrared heating is starting to appear at the top of the charts of heating options. Infrared heat can help reduce your carbon footprint, is more energy efficient, and uses much less energy than other types of heating systems.

Natural gas heating

In Italy, 84% of all homes use gas as the main fuel for heating. Thus making gas central heating the most common heating system. In comparison, 2.3 million homes are heated by electricity (8.6%), over one million homes by heating oil (4.1%) and the rest by solid fuel (0.8%) and LPG (0.7%).

Gas may work well in a well-insulated area, but infrared heats objects directly; therefore, insulation is not a problem; however, some insulation will certainly work to keep the heat absorbed by the objects in the room.

Infrared heating

An infrared lamp is a radiant heater that will heat both you and objects in its path such as furniture, walls and floors, which in turn absorb the heat and slowly release it. The radiant heat produced by infrared heating is drier and cleaner, there is no circulation of dust, unlike conventional heating such as a radiator, fan heater or convector.

Infrared heating can also be powered by renewable sources such as solar panels to produce a more carbon friendly approach making it a fantastic sustainable heating system. IR heating lamps are undoubtedly more elegant and can have additional functions in the home since they have different finishes and take up very little space and are easy to install. The lamps can also be ceiling mounted which does not take up space and prevents the possibility of cold spots.

But how do they work? Instead of heating the air by circulating it through a convection heating element, infrared lamps emit a type of electromagnetic wave that is invisible to the human eye. But we can feel the heat directly on objects in its vicinity. In fact, infrared waves are also known as heat waves. Because when an object is encountered with infrared waves, it produces heat due to the vibrations of the atoms and molecules.

An infrared heater gives off heat right away as soon as you turn it on. Heat is felt in the room relatively quickly, but this is a gradual increase in temperature rather than instant heat. An infrared heater is virtually maintenance free with no filters or drains to keep clean

Operating costs and installation

Gas central heating requires the entire gas boiler system to fire up even if only one room needs to be heated. Even with thermostatic valves on the radiators, the boiler still only needs to produce full power to heat a few radiators, obviously there’s not much point in doing that.

While infrared heating is highly energy efficient because you can specify which rooms you want to heat and turn on the radiant lamp in that room. This is called zone heating, where you heat specific areas within your home, when and where you need it.

Zoned heating is a very effective way of limiting overall heating costs. And is made possible because infrared heating can be programmed to be any temperature at any time anywhere in the house. Unlike gas, where you’ll typically have one for the whole house. This means that the operating costs are significantly lower than with other types of home heating. Especially gas which needs to be turned on for a while before real heat is felt throughout the house.

Compared to another electric heating system, infrared heat lamps have a much lower energy requirement and therefore a lower hourly operating cost. Installation costs are also low, with no need for plumbing, gas pipes or radiators. Simply find the nearest power outlet and mount the lamp on the wall as you would your flat screen TV.

Differences between gas and infrared heating

With convection heating, such as radiators, the surrounding air must warm up, rise to the ceiling by convection, and be replaced by cold air below. Thus, there is a constant movement of cool and warm air until the entire room has reached thermal equilibrium. With infrared, since the air doesn’t have to be heated, the heat distribution is always the same temperature throughout the room.

The level of thermal comfort with infrared heating is very high. Because radiant heating doesn’t use the surrounding air to transmit heat, it improves the air quality inside your home. It is a type of heat that does not dry the air in the room but still acts by reducing the formation of mold because condensation does not form and dust does not circulate as can happen with convection heating from a radiator. Infrared heating also improves blood circulation by penetrating our skin and causing blood vessels to expand which can lead to lower blood pressure.

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