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Are Infrared Heaters Safe?

How safe are infrared heaters? That’s a very popular question for a lot of people during the cold winter months. Infrared heaters are very efficient and effective at heating up a small room no matter how cold it is outside, but what are their drawbacks? Let’s go over the main concerns here.

Are infrared heaters safe for your health?

Lots of folks worry that infrared heaters are a health hazard. A common fear is that they can even cause cancer through their infrared light! This is very much a myth, however. In fact, from a purely physical health standpoint, infrared heaters are very beneficial – their infrared light improves blood circulation the same way sunlight does only without the drawbacks of the sun’s UV radiation.

Additionally, infrared heaters don’t create any smoke or release any toxins into the air, they don’t dehumidify the spaces around them, they don’t drain the oxygen out of the room, and so on. In short – infrared heaters are much safer for our health than most other heating devices.

Are infrared heaters safe to leave on overnight?

This is indeed one of the main drawbacks of infrared heaters. Because their coils heat up so much they can not only cause severe burns to the touch but if toppled over by a pet or a child they can cause a house fire pretty easily.

What’s more, because infrared heaters heat the objects close to them directly and not the air itself, if there are drapes or furniture close to the heater they can burst into flames due to the high temperature even if they are not touching the heater directly.

So, especially overnight, you should leave an infrared heater running only if you’re 100% sure that there are no inflammable objects (even a piece of paper on the floor) near it nor are there kids or pets that can accidentally bump into it.

As you can see, infrared heater safety pretty much boils down to making sure there isn’t anything inflammable near the heater. Even if you do have kids or pets in the house, if the heater is placed on a stone floor with no carpet, it won’t start a house fire if toppled over. So, if you can manage to remove that risk out of the equation, an infrared heater should be a pretty good choice for your home.

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