If you've ever stood under a patio heater on a cool evening and felt instant warmth on your face and hands, you've experienced infrared heating. It works like the sun-radiant heat that travels in straight lines and warms you directly, not the air around you.
That's the core idea behind a sun heater, and infrared heating tubes are the component that makes it work.
The Sun Heater Principle: Radiant, Not Convective
A conventional fan heater works by convection-it heats air and blows it around the room. A sun heater (infrared heater) works differently. It produces infrared radiation, which travels through the air with almost no loss and warms people and objects directly.
Think of it this way: on a sunny day, you feel warm even when the air temperature is cool. That's because the sun's infrared rays heat your skin directly. A sun heater does exactly the same thing.
The practical advantages for outdoor heating are significant. Because infrared doesn't rely on air temperature, it works even in windy conditions. The heat reaches you regardless of air movement, making it the logical choice for patios, outdoor dining areas, and other open spaces.
The Tube: How It Generates the Heat
Inside an infrared heating tube, the principle is straightforward. A heating element-typically a resistance wire made of tungsten, iron-chromium-aluminum, or nickel-chromium alloy-is enclosed in a quartz glass tube. When electricity passes through the wire, it heats up to very high temperatures, often well over 1000°C.
That intense heat causes the element to emit infrared radiation. The quartz tube serves two purposes: it protects the heating element from moisture and contaminants, and it allows the infrared radiation to pass through efficiently.
The actual wavelength of the radiation depends on the element temperature. Short-wave infrared (near-infrared) comes from higher-temperature elements and penetrates more deeply. Medium-wave is used for many comfort heating applications. The choice of tube and element affects the heater's performance.
Short-wave quartz heaters can achieve radiant efficiency of up to 96%, converting most of the electricity directly into usable heat.
Why Quartz?
Quartz glass is used because it has excellent infrared transmittance. Ordinary glass would absorb much of the infrared energy, reducing the heater's effectiveness. The quartz tube gets hot during operation-up to several hundred degrees Celsius-and then emits the heat outward through its surface.
Some tubes also include a reflector coating on one side-often gold or white ceramic-to direct the radiation in a specific direction. This reflector is what allows a sun heater to focus heat toward the people in front of it, rather than radiating equally in all directions. Properly designed reflectors can direct up to 98% of the radiation.
Carbon vs. Quartz: What's the Difference?
Sun heaters typically use one of two tube types:
Quartz tubes use a metal heating element inside a quartz envelope. They heat up fast and produce short-wave infrared, which is ideal for outdoor use because the heat penetrates well even in windy conditions.
Carbon tubes use braided carbon fiber as the heating element. They also heat up instantly and have a longer service life, with some rated for over 10,000 hours of operation. Carbon tubes emit far-infrared, which some users describe as more "gentle" and closer to natural sunlight.
Both types achieve the same result: instant, directional heat that makes a sun heater effective where other heaters fall short.
What This Means for OEMs
If you manufacture sun heaters, the choice of infrared heating tube directly affects product performance. The key factors are:
Wavelength. Short-wave infrared is preferred for outdoor sun heaters because it penetrates well in wind and doesn't depend on air temperature. An output of 95%+ radiant efficiency means most electricity becomes usable heat. Carbon fiber tubes can achieve heat-to-electricity conversion rates of up to 98%.
Start-up time. Quartz and carbon tubes reach operating temperature in seconds-no warm-up phase, just heat on demand. Almost instantaneous warmth is a competitive advantage.
Durability. The quartz envelope protects the element from moisture and corrosion, which matters in outdoor installations. Lifetimes of 10,000+ hours are achievable with proper design and materials.
Getting the heating tube right is what separates a sun heater that sells-because it works-from one that's returned because it doesn't.
If you're manufacturing sun heaters and want to optimize your heating element design, send us your target wattage, housing dimensions, and outdoor use conditions. We'll recommend the right infrared tube configuration-quartz or carbon, short-wave or medium-wave, with or without reflector coating-provide samples for testing, and quote production pricing. We've been making heating tubes for appliance OEMs at Jaye Heater for over a decade.
Click here to request a quote or email us at [your email]. We'll respond within one business day.
