Yeah, me too Ron, how does the whole "Hot air rises" theory work with them? Cheers, Terry.
That was one of my concerns with my shop all along. A 5000w + a 1500w with the good insulation I have should be enough for my sf and 8ft ceilings. Problem is, my ceiling is 9ft at one wall rising to 14ft on the other. So I'm heating the upper space. I've been up there on a ladder before, hanging stuff, and it is toasty. Then come back down to the floor and its..not toasty.
So the IRs are supposed to heat objects, not air. In fact they will work in a vacuum! which i hadn't considered, but so says Wickipedia. They will heat the workbench, tools, the bike, the FLOOR, and most importantly ME. That's what i felt at Home Depot at the checkout lane. I didn't feel any sort of blast of warm air coming at me, just my body got warmer.
The air only gets warmer as a side effect of warming the objects, then they in turn heat the air.
So there should be little loss of the energy going into the heaters from hot air risiing. Which should/could mean they are more energy efficient. The trade off is the fan forced heater was $250. I've got nearly $1000 in the IRs.
But if they heat me and the rest as advertised, are quiet, and fully adjustable as to laying out the heat, they will be worth it.
The fan forced runs off a conventional thermostat. So it heats the air up to a point then shuts off. Then the temp drifts down to the prescribed level at which point the fan kicks in again. This spread being almost too warm on the high end and almost too cold on the low end. And it always kicks back in just when the Colts are kicking a field goal. The IR controllers are set by me at a steady temp and they stay there quietly emitting radiation.
We'll see, could all be a bust, but live and learn.