Infrared heaters and pellet cookers play two different roles in maintaining your home comfortable. Infrared heaters mostly are utilised to heat small areas or work spaces. Pellet stoves may be used to heat your whole home. Their heat sources and varieties of heat also vary and affect the environment and air quality in your house in distinct ways.
Radiant vs. Circulated Heating
An infrared heater projects glowing heat, that means it heats objects in the area which then reflects the heat into the room. The atmosphere in the room isn’t heated. A pellet stove projects a certain amount of glowing heat close to the unit, but the majority of the heat is circulated throughout the room in the kind of warm air. This means that an infrared heater will make heat you may feel almost immediately, but the space cools quickly the moment the unit is shut off because the air is still cool. A pellet stove requires more time to create heat, but some of the heat remains after the unit stops running.
Consider the Fuel Source
Infrared heaters are usually electric, but versions are available which use natural gas, propane or oil as a fuel source. Pellet stoves burn specially made pellets, usually made from wood scraps, but occasionally from corn or other substances. Bags of pellets may be heavy and need a lot of storage space, but consist of waste which would otherwise don’t have any use.
Dimensions and Space
The heat made by infrared heaters doesn’t spread around flow or objects into other rooms. Generally, you must be in the line of sight of this heater to feel the heat. An infrared heater cannot be linked to central ducts to spread heat through several rooms at the same time. The heat it does produce, however, is usually dispersed evenly from floor to ceiling. Depending on its settings and size, a pellet stove can heat only a single space, several rooms, or your entire home if it is attached to central ducts. You do not need to be near the stove or in sight of it, since the warm air can be forced into other locations. The warm air in the pellet cooker tends to rise to the ceiling, leaving the atmosphere at the base of the space cold.
The Bottom Line: Energy Savings
Infrared heaters are usually used as personal or basin heaters. By heating only the area you are using, it is possible to turn the thermostat down on the central heating unit to save energy and money. Pellet stoves are usually used to heat a large region. They are more efficient than wood burning stoves and may be less costly to operate than natural gas, electric or propane furnaces, depending on the design, your climate and your home. Pellet stoves are occasionally used as zone heaters, to heat a frequently used part of the house and save on central heating costs.
Emissions and Air Quality
An infrared heater doesn’t create any direct emissions and doesn’t have an effect on air quality. It does not create any smoke, dust or allergens. An infrared heater doesn’t dry out the air just like a pellet stove or many types of heaters and doesn’t require an outside vent. The environmental effect of the unit comes from its fuel source, such as the use of coal to create electricity. A pellet stove produces fewer emissions than a wood stove but nonetheless releases carbon monoxide and other toxins that have to be vented outside the house. The pellets may even be stale, and air forced through the house might contain allergens.