Quote: Originally posted by navver on 09/8/2018
Infra red is a much more efficient form of heat than convected as it is radiant. It warms you and not the air as the sun does.
I have heard that before and that is the bit that puzzles me. Does everyone have to sit huddled around the front of it to keep warm, and if you walk away from it to a different part of the tent is it freezing cold?
At least with a fan heater the air is heated and circulates throughout the tent.
Quote: Originally posted by navver on 09/8/2018
Infra red is a much more efficient form of heat than convected as it is radiant. It warms you and not the air as the sun does.
I have heard that before and that is the bit that puzzles me. Does everyone have to sit huddled around the front of it to keep warm, and if you walk away from it to a different part of the tent is it freezing cold?
At least with a fan heater the air is heated and circulates throughout the tent.
That's my take on it too... though I'm no expert.
That's why we opted to accept the gentle whirr of a fan heater. Don't get me wrong, we both have to sit right in front of it when camping October to March (We have it oscillating and sit side by side), but for the odd occasion we use it outside of those months, you do notice it warm the whole tent up (our tent is one room, no separate bedroom).
Have only ever used a fan heater though, so no experience of other types.
whilst we were away last week, the site we were on had a ban on fires. BBQ`s were ok, but no fires.
now i normally enjoy a nice fire, but only burn them logs from B&M that dont smoke, just in case i meet mike on site. we have a folding bbq that doubles as a pit.
anyway, we toddled up to shrewsbury and happened on a store selling off all their garden stuff cheap. so, i became the happy owner of a new quartz patio heater.
a quick rummage in the bin area on site and i happened on some of them led lights on stakes so i made myself a low level quartz heater.
like bob, i wasnt sure how much it would work. the closer you sat, the warmer, obviously, but it did warm quite an area. if you were in the awning and you turned to face it, you could feel the warmth on your face.
the red glow wasnt noticable and when walking back from the toilet, you could only see the glow on our legs,
however, i took a pic and after messing with my cameras settings, managed to capture the infared glow, and its a good illustration of how far it reaches.
the heater is in the floor, six foot in front of our porch awning, with three chairs lined up and the missis in the middle one (its hard to make out)Post last edited on 10/08/2018 11:20:55
Interesting but I would find that red glow annoying at night when trying to sleep so would still prefer a fan heater...even though the noise from that can be annoying too. At least on thermostat it's not running all the time
Imagine you are lying on a beach and the sun is shining. You can feel that heat warming your body. That has travelled 93,000,000 miles.
Imagine space is full of air and the sun is blowing out hot air. Do you think you would feel that hot air 93,000,000 miles away. I doubt it.
A fan heater in your tent will heat the air but most of that hot air will be lost in draughts. A lot of energy is needed to heat that air. Radiant heat will heat you not the air so you get the benefit not the field outside.
Radiant heat travels in the same way as light but at a slightly different frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum.
Quote: Originally posted by Bob61 on 10/8/2018
Interesting but I would find that red glow annoying at night when trying to sleep so would still prefer a fan heater...even though the noise from that can be annoying too. At least on thermostat it's not running all the time
bob, that red glow is enhanced to show where the heat reaches. read the post mate.
Radiant heat is good in open spaces or very large spaces where it's difficult to heat the air. The downside is they are directional so if there are several of you then you can't all be in front of it.
A fan heater in the relatively small space of a tent heats the air fairly quickly. I've usually only had to run it for a short while.
On cold nights when it's been 7C outside the tent, an 800W (low) fan heater running through the night had the tent at 22C when I woke up in the morning. For some reason the thermostat only seems to work on high.
I use a ceramic fan heater as they run at a much lower temperature than conventional fan heaters.
I don't like to use infrared heaters inside the tent in case it gets something gets too close to it. I do have two in my large shed for the winter and I find them very 'goldilocks' when working at the bench. Either too hot or too cold depending on exactly where I stand in the cross fire.
I set my timer (also with ceramic fan heater) to come on for half an hour, every hour through the night, just to keep the chill off, and the damp down, then on permanently from 5am. I also sit the loo bucket within the fan's oscillation range! LOL!
This on the 1500w setting, with thermostat set at high, so it never actually goes off (apart from when the timer switches it off, of course).
That's the norm, for Nov to March.
Quote: Originally posted by navver on 10/8/2018
Imagine you are lying on a beach and the sun is shining. You can feel that heat warming your body. That has travelled 93,000,000 miles.
Imagine space is full of air and the sun is blowing out hot air. Do you think you would feel that hot air 93,000,000 miles away. I doubt it.
A fan heater in your tent will heat the air but most of that hot air will be lost in draughts. A lot of energy is needed to heat that air. Radiant heat will heat you not the air so you get the benefit not the field outside.
Radiant heat travels in the same way as light but at a slightly different frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum.
Yes but the sun doesn't just heat your body it heats the entire atmosphere as well, so everywhere feels warm. If the sun goes behind a cloud there is still warmth in the air but you feel cold because the heat stops.
A fan heater is heating the entire atmosphere continually whether you stand in front of it or not.
I didn't read it as the colour being enhanced, Jedsjeep, just that the camera had been set to show the glow in the dark. Not being an expert on heat I believe a quartz heater gives out heat and light so half the energy is wasted in light.
Do Quartz Halogen heaters give off light?
Yes. This is inevitable because shortwave infrared is right on the edge of the light spectrum visible to humans. In older types of elements, the light output is a deep and unpleasant ruby red. All SunSwitch heaters have elements with a gold coating that increases energy-efficiency and produces a more neutral, pleasing light. When correctly positioned above normal sight lines, the light is not intrusive. Any colour is easily washed out with normal lighting.
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Topic: Quartz Heater
