How an infrared heater works

Infrared light is in an invisible wavelength of light that cannot be detected by human eyes, i.e. it is outside of the colour spectrum to which our eyes are naturally sensitive.

One way of describing infrared heat is to say that it is a bi-product of invisible light, but this is not really the case. Heat and infrared light go together.

The reason that infrared light makes us feel warm is because our skin absorbs the infrared light and, although we cannot actually see it, it raises the temperature of the skin as a result. It is the same process and the same type of light that makes us feel warm when our skin is exposed to the sun on a bright clear summer's day.

You can easily test this explanation by standing in a sunny situation and then moving into the shade. You will feel an immediate drop in the temperature of your skin as you leave the rays of the sun and move to the shaded area.

In saunas infrared heaters capitalise on this effect by surrounding the body with infrared emitters that direct their warm rays towards the exposed skin, thereby making the body feel warm or even hot. This creates that natural effect of hot dry heat that saunas are famed for, but without the time and energy consuming process of warming the air within the sauna room.

The benefits of an infrared heater are therefore:

It is for these reasons that saunas, and particularly those made from sauna kits, are often seen with infrared rather than more conventional heaters or stoves.



Sauna index