Zone Heating With an Infrared Heater

With most central heating systems, the whole house is heated all the time.

Zone heating allows you to heat just the part of the house that you're using.

Many people spend most of their time in just one or two areas of the home. In such cases, it makes no sense to pay for toasty temperatures in the empty parts of the house. A more economical approach is to turn down your whole-house thermostat to a comfortably cool level - say, 65 degrees - then heat the most-used areas of your house with an alternative heating system such as an infrared heater. Instead of having a 5000 watt heat pump - or a gas furnace, or whatever - running all the time to heat an empty house, you can keep frequented areas warm with a heater that pulls only 1500 watts. If done properly, zone heating can have a substantial effect on your energy bill.

Infrared heater advantages for zone heating

While you can use many different kinds of heat to accomplish the goals of zone heating, an infrared heater is a better option than most. Particularly, it beats out its most common rival - the standard space heater - so completely that there is no contest.

Infrared heat distribution

Unlike an ordinary electric space heater of the same wattage, a SolarFlare infrared heater does not waste 1500 watts of your energy bill roasting a small circle of the ceiling. Instead, heat is introduced into the room's atmosphere gently and without turbulence. The whole room warms gradually and evenly. This allows an infrared heater to produce more perceived warmth from the same BTU's - and thus cover a much larger area than would be otherwise possible. Normally, a 1500 watt heater is rated to heat between 150 and 200 square feet, but infrared heaters have been successfully used to warm up to one thousand square feet. Even half that number could easily cover the normally-inhabited part of many houses, making infrared a very viable choice for zone heating.

Read more about infrared heat distribution.

Safety

You should never leave an ordinary electric space heater running unattended - not even for a minute. This presents a problem if you try to do zone heating with an ordinary space heater: You can't start it until you get home, so you'll be walking into a cool house (and one that will take a long time to get warm).

Because of its unique safety features, an infrared heater can be run unattended using its thermostat. This feature makes an infrared heater work more like a small version of your central heating than an ordinary space heater, and is ideal for zone heating. (Note: Especially when running the heater unattended, make sure that it is plugged directly into a suitable electrical outlet with no extension cords or frayed wires. Since the heater draws 12.5 amps, it's also a good idea to have it on a dedicated circuit if possible - most household circuits supply 15 to 20 amps.)

Portability

Some zone heating devices, such as baseboard and ventless heaters, are not portable. This means that you have to purchase and hook up several of them if you want to zone heat more than one room of your house. While it's certainly possible to use multiple infrared heaters in the same way, it's not necessary. The SolarFlare Standard and Economy infrared heaters come with smooth-rolling casters, so you can easily move the heater from room to room throughout your day. When you go to bed at night, the heater can come in the bedroom with you - and chip away at your energy bill all night.

Cold spots

Many central heat systems leave one or more "cold spots" in your home, forcing you to run the whole system hotter.

While a central heating system should theoretically keep your entire house the same temperature throughout, this is often not the case in practice. Many houses have chronic "cold spots," particularly those with multiple floors or finished basements. If one of these cold spots is in a frequented area of the house, you may find yourself having to overheat the rest of the house in order to warm that spot.

This is one application where an infrared heater really shines. By keeping that cold spot warm, the infrared heater enables your central heating system to run less and saves you money on your heating bill.