Infrared vs space heater: How warm does it feel

An infrared heater is no more efficient at making heat than other electric heaters, but you can aim the heat where you want to to make it "feel" warmer than it actually is (like sunshine does too), which can save a lot of energy. I' measuring how much warmer it feels.

[nathanlucas]

When I was at school, the workshops had those ir heaters over the workbenches. They didnt want to use conventional heaters as the dust extractor system would effectively change the air in the workshop every 3 or 4 minutes

[dscrive]

I've occasionally used heat lamps above my bench to keep my hands and tools warm while the rest of me was bundled up. Works pretty well.

[johncasey]

I live in Canada and have a back porch that is uninsulated and unheated. I bought a couple of those 1, 500 watt infrared heaters and placed them above each of the recliners in my back porch. I can turn one on for a couple minutes, go out and I am toasty. I love them. It doesn't matter if I decide to go out there for 15 minutes or 2 hours, I only pay for the heating I use.

[sephalon]

Mount it upside down from the ceiling on a computer-controlled swivel, get motion sensors, and use your Matthias Magic to write software to have it track you as you move about that corner of the shop.

[Ostap]

So when will we see a project of human tracking that automatically turns the heater towards you when you move around?

[Ford]

A propane radiant heater would work well in that space. When it's really cold out, I use a propane heater with box fan a few feet above it to circulate the warm air. It works really well and in my experience, they don't use much propane. Plus, they're really nice when the power goes out. If you do end up getting one, don't for get to buy a carbon monoxide detector and leave a window cracked when it's running.

[LoganHenry]

Growing up in a mechanic shop, we always placed the large equipment and workbenches under the radiant heaters. Most practically, an infrared heater's job is to heat objects (like those boxes, or work tables) and allow the heat they've absorbed to warm the room.

[patrickbush]

I just bought me a bunch of boxes that were already warmed up and put my coat on. Works great !

[PhanactFJ]

This has been so informative, I appreciate your process, very well explained. Thank you

[Petertronic]

First Technology Connections, then EEVBlog, now Matthias making videos about space heaters :)

[wisenber]

Looks great for winter time epoxy curing!

[arifali]

You can add insulation on floor. Also you can create a small room by adding couple insulated walls if needed to reduce cost of heating.

[BlahBlahManYeah]

Looking forward for you building warm mats, using variety of traditional heated floor offerings, like infrared film and etc, I believe if you have heated mat to stand and work on next to bench or tool you wont be not much bothered by ambient temperature. Adding heating mag to each tool zone will be similar of adding personal dust extractor for each of your craft tools. Good luck and great video as always!

[broccolihart]

Oh shizz! I didnt know it was the legend i was watching . Good to see you again my man....i still have your wood workhorse design you uploaded years ago.

[LarsSveen]

I was surprised at how well those dish heaters work to warm a whole room. That's all I had to warm up a basement room, so I plugged it in and left it for a few hours. The room was probably around 45F when I plugged it in, and when I came back it was very comfortable at around 65F.

[dylanreischling]

At 1:14 I notice a radiator connector type thing on the wall, why wouldn’t you just use that? Inefficient? Or maybe broken?

[jkbrown]

If your working localized, you can put some radiant heat barrier on the wall opposite the heater on the other side of you to reflect back on you which will decrease the front/back differential making it feel more comfortable.

[RobertL]

We have one of the infrared heaters aimed at one part of the couch at night. In the morning, that is where all of the cats are piled up. They definitely prefer that to a regular space heater.

[paulkolodner]

My impression is that having two of these heaters pointing at the same area from different directions, with both oscillating, would help with the problem of feeling warm on one side of your body and cold on the other as well as allowing you to move around a bit and not move out of the warm area.

[tomdenny]

I use a parabolic infrared heater in my work shop and you are correct that moving about makes the heat feel more even. Mine is mounted to the ceiling in one corner and aimed at the center of my shop. As far as dust getting on it, ocaisionally I can smell hot wood but it isn't anything that I find objectionable and I seriously doubt enough dust will accumulate to be a fire hazard.