Efficiency
Electrically-heated infrared heaters radiate up to 86% of their input as radiant energy. Nearly all the electrical energy input is converted into infrared radiant heat in the filament and directed onto the product by reflectors. Some energy is lost due to conduction or convection.
For practical applications, the efficiency of the infrared heater depends on matching the emitted wavelength and the absorption spectrum of the material to be heated. For example, the absorption spectrum for water has its peak at around 3,000 nm. This means that emission from medium-wave or carbon infrared heaters is much better absorbed by water and water-based coatings than NIR or short-wave infrared radiation. The same is true for many plastics like PVC or polyethylene. Their peak absorption is around 3,500 nm. On the other hand, some metals absorb only in the short-wave range and show a strong reflectivity in the medium and far infrared. This makes a careful selection of the right infrared heater type important for energy efficiency in the heating process.
Ceramic elements operate in the temperature of 300 to 700 °C (570 to 1,290 °F) producing infrared wavelengths in the 2,000 to 10,000 nm range. Most plastics and many other materials absorb infrared best in this range, which makes the ceramic heater most suited for this task.
Read more about this topic: Infrared Heater
Famous quotes containing the word efficiency:
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same and everywhere one and the same in her efficiency and power of action; that is, nature’s laws and ordinances whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature’s universal laws and rules.”
—Baruch (Benedict)
“I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”
—Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974)