Are no-glow infrared heat panels like this one Outdoor Central Infrared Radiant Strip Heaters Review - YouTube safe? Could they cause cancer? Do they work?
Why would they be dangerous or cancerous? They’re IR, not UV. Most things that we use to give off heat (at least when we’re talking about convection) do so via infrared radiation. Little space heaters are infrared. You’re toaster uses infrared. Electric stoves operate in the IR range.
As far as if they work, I don’t see why they wouldn’t. Having a heater that uses nothing more than EM radiation hitting you is pretty common.
Here is the product info page, for those who don’t want to view a youtube video.
It appears to be just a metal bar that is heated up to 275 degrees F. It generates infrared radiation by the same mechanism any hot surface generates heat, i.e. thermal radiation. It can’t cause cancer.
It also seems like a horribly inefficient way to generate infrared radiation. Most of the energy would will be carried away by air (convection) rather than infrared radiation.
C, not F, it’s over 500F.
I’m sure it’s not all that efficient, at least in the manner you described. However, if you mount it close enough to people (like a propane patio heater that you have to be close to) or in something semi-enclosed, it’s certainly going to be better than nothing.
I don’t think it’s meant to feel like it’s 80 when it’s 30 outside, but when it’s 50 or 60f, it’ll get some of your party guests outside instead of huddled inside.
Also, it looks as if it’s meant for commercial applications where you can have a bunch of them heating one area, not just a single one.
It may be nice for a garage though.
I want a heater that is ceiling mount so it is out of the way. The temps where I live, New Zealand, in winter which is now are usually 40-50 at night and 55-70 during the day. I’m thinking I would rather just heat my house to around 68 and then spot heat the area of the living room, dining room, I sit in the most because I am just sitting I like it at 72+.
So you all sound sure I won’t burn or get cancer from it?
On another forum someone was saying that no one knows it they cause cancer and it was scaring me. They were talking about saunas where they have the walls and ceiling lined with them.
They cause cancer if you eat them.
It’s just an electrical heater- the same thing as a toaster, an electric stove or heated seats in your car, except in this case, the heating element heats up a big black metal bar that radiates the heat in infrared, versus conduction or convection like other types of heaters do.
IR is literally long wavelength light that our eyes can’t see- it’s off the red end of the spectrum just like ultraviolet is off the violet end (imagine that, infra-red and ultra-violet!).
UV causes cancer because it has enough energy to penetrate the skin and damage cells’ genetic material. IR can’t do that- it’s not high enough energy, and just heats you up.
Personally, I hate sitting under radiated heat (even from the sun). Have you thought about warming the chair with something like this? Heated Seat Cover
Thanks, I missed that.
At that temperature I’d be concerned about risk of burns. And it doesn’t seem to have any type of safety mesh or grill. It needs to be mounted high enough that nobody could reach up and touch it.
Sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not energy-efficient. If it’s indoors, then it’s perfectly fine, it’s just an electric heater. If you use it outdoors, you are using most of your energy heating up the world. Conventional infrared heaters (the glowing kind) are more efficient at converting energy into infrared.
Infrared saunas are safe, and possibly provide some health benefits.
Why would you put the heater in the ceiling? Heat rises. You are creating an inefficient heating system.
They won’t cause cancer, but no one said anything about not getting burned by them. They’re certainly hot enough to burn you, but I’d imagine you’d have to be within inches for that to happen.
Sure, that’s technically true because you can’t prove a negative. It’s not possible to prove that the chair you’re sitting in or the milk you’re drinking won’t cause cancer.
But I don’t know of any link between IR heaters and cancer.
Go back to the person that said that and ask them to back up their statement. Even a study showing that they can’t find a link. Otherwise, it’s just someone making something up.
Around here every Walmart has similar heaters mounted overhead in the shopping cart storage area. I Love standing under them when I come into the store in winter. You can bask in the gentle warmth, it’s great. All the carts are nice and toasty. Heck, my 50" plasma TV runs at only 105 degrees F and I can stand in front and feel the heat.
Dennis
It would seem to me that you’d be better served by either something like a portable radiant heater likethis or buy three of these and use as needed. If you’re determined to use the ceiling heater you’ll be fine as long as you don’t touch it while it’s hot.
Quite right.
What about a heated floor for your patio? Something that could be turned on only when you or guests were using the patio in cooler weather?
It’ is supposed to not heat the air but heat the objects in the room including the people. So it is supposed to feel warm like you are sitting under the sun. People say it is pleasant.
“Heat” does not rise. Heated AIR rises. Radiant heat will heat objects that will then heat the air. The heated air then rises.
Consumer, know thyself. How cheap, or comfy, or otherwise positive would the experience of using this device have to be to outweigh the anxiety in the back of your mind about burns or carcinogenicity? Speaking as someone who deals daily with persons with various anxieties, I have long since given up on trying to argue people out of positions that are not arrived at rationally. I don’t mean to be dismissive; just that you can’t make a person who is afraid of spiders not arachnophobic by quoting statistics about spider bites. Argument won’t convince me that vanilla is better than chocolate, either. If you have real anxiety about things giving you cancer, to the point that someone’s Internet comment scared you in relation to a product you don’t even own, then I doubt our reassurances will make that anxiety go away. So again: how great will the experience have to be in order to make you forget that one guy’s forum comment?
To be clear, I think that there is no mechanism for these things to cause cancer. Anything that gets over 44 degrees C will cause a burn if held in direct contact for long enough. I am not judging you; I myself don’t enjoy driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway because of all of the dropoffs and lack of guardrails. I acknowledge that I have a mild phobia about driving near cliff edges, so I do not go there anymore, and my life is no poorer for it. Perhaps I misread the situation, and our reassurances are enough to dismiss any fears you might have. I hope so.
I feel phobic about driving a car in general especially when traveling when I don’t know the streets. But I don’t quite feel phobic about the heater- I just want without a doubt assurance from rational people on Straight Dope. I feel like if everyone on here tells me the same thing it must be right.
I actually bought a infrared heater because it was on sale yesterday afternoon and I mounted it last night. I’m female and mounting it up high took hours and was a bit of a mission but I got it done. I didn’t buy the same kind in the photo—the one I bought says infrared and it glows. Its kind of ugly. But heating wise I like it ok. It feels like sitting next to a fire place and what ever side of your body is facing it gets warmer than the rest of your body. So if I am lounging back with my feet up I feel warm all over but if I sit up with my feet on the floor, my head feels warmer, and my feet are a little bit cold because they are further from the heat. There are 4 settings and I have it on the lowest !. I am sitting 10 feet away and its 9 feet up. On the highest setting I feel like I’m slowly getting sunburned- even if it can’t do that. On the lowest setting its really quite nice though. On the highest setting you have to be sitting at least 12 feet away or its to intense. Its 2000watts so I hope that means if there is 4 setting on the lowest setting 1 it is only drawing 500watts of electricity. It thats true its doing an amazing job.
I like that heated seat cover- I’m looking now to see if they have it in NZ.