With the onset of winters most homeowners start looking for economical means of heating their homes. One of the latest heating devices these days is an infrared heater and one often finds them in homes, offices and saunas.

Infrared heaters comprise of a number of flat thin sheets, as infrared radiations demand a large surface area to be covered. If you intend having one for your sauna bath, go for one of the widest, as the larger the area, the more effective is the heating.

Some manufacturers make such heaters using rods to economize the surface area and the cost, but such heaters tend to remain ineffective. Though most of the infrared heaters employ carbon fiber, some are made using steel and ceramic too.

Positioning of the heating elements within the infrared sauna also affects its efficiency. Infrared saunas necessarily need multiple heaters for even distribution of emitted radiations throughout the sauna.

One characteristic feature of infrared radiation is that it can’t go very far, making it necessary to position the heater closer to the user. The sauna room should have suitable number of heaters in the area, facilitating the sauna user to absorb light from all around, from back to the front.

It’s important to understand that the working of infrared electric fireplace heaters is different from traditional saunas. Traditional saunas get heated through a container filled with hot coal with heating elements acquiring a surface temperature of 180-220 degrees Fahrenheit.

Such an arrangement requires 30 to 90 minutes for reaching its peak level of temperature and hence efficiency. Infrared convector heaters, on the other hand, offer an innovative way to power a sauna. The infrared radiations emitted by them straightaway go to heat the objects, without heating the medium, air in most cases, on the way.

As they don’t heat air and go straight to people in the sauna, infrared heaters work faster and become effective in a shorter period, thus remaining more efficient. While under operation they generally measure from 110 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, needing just about twenty minutes for becoming ready for use. They are more energy efficient and consume about 30-50 percent of power, compared to traditional heaters.