Difference Between Radiant And Convection Heaters

The main benefit to convection heaters is that they are good at heating an entire room for an extended period of time.

Difference between radiant and convection heaters.

A radiant heater is better for more intermittent heating. Convection heaters work more slowly and less efficiently but provide sustained heat over a long time and larger areas. Radiant heaters transfer the heat they generate directly to people and objects. Radiant heating on the other hand follows stefan boltzmann s law and is proportional to the fourth power with respect to absolute temperature.

As personal heating systems convection heaters and radiant heaters have much to recommend them. They are the best choice in rooms where people can remain within the line of sight of the heater. Radiant heating simply uses radiation to heat surfaces of objects. It takes more time and energy for a convection heater to achieve target temperature than for a radiant heater to do so.

In order to heat the air a temperature difference between the room air and the heating element is necessary in a conventional convection heating system. A convection heater performs best when providing heating over a long period of time. While radiant space heaters are great for heating people and objects in relatively close quarters a convection space heater warms the air in a room which is a better option for large rooms. Those objects warm up directly and radiate back.

The air has to. Radiant heaters provide a concentrated beam of heat that warms people and objects very quickly but only in small areas. However once the heat is achieved it s easy to maintain it. Convection warms the air which is a triple inefficiency.