Considering “infrared” heating films?

Every heat source above absolute zero emits infrared: your body, a tiled stove, a warm floor (whether heated by water or electricity) or an ordinary radiator. The infrared effect is NOT unique to heating films, however hard aggressive sales marketing tries to present it as an “extraordinary” feature. Claims about the “health benefits” of infrared from heating films, or promises of heating for a fraction of the cost of other heat sources, belong in fairy tales.

DISTRIBUTORS OF “INFRARED” HEATING FILMS ARE NOT LYING WHEN THEY SAY THEIR PRODUCT EMITS INFRARED.

THE TRICK IS NOT MENTIONING THAT EVERY SINGLE HEAT SOURCE DOES THE SAME.

Safety of electric heating systems

Before you choose a cheaper offer, be sure to ask the installer offering “INFRARED” HEATING FILMS:

1. how this product provides protection against electric shock, and what they do with the protective earth (PE) conductor (or why they do not connect it),
2. how, and by whom, the power connections to each strip of infrared film are insulated,
3. how many under-floor power connections, each of which the installer has to insulate by hand on site with ordinary butyl tape, there are in a typical room, and whether they consider this method of insulation safe for the user?
4. what liability the installer accepts for the work, and for how long after commissioning (warranty / statutory guarantee),
5. an “infrared” heating film supposedly emits a unique, health-giving far-infrared (FIR) wave, so does a floor warmed by conventional heating mats or cables emit a different wavelength from a floor warmed by “infrared” film? Which law of physics says so?
6. does the infrared radiation from the film pass straight through 8–10 mm floor panels and underlay to warm my body directly, or does it warm the panel first? In that case, what is emitting the “infrared”?

WARMUP heating mats, cables and films are not cut from a roll or drum on site, as “infrared” films are. They are made in set lengths and areas according to the product range. There is only one power joint per room, connecting the cold lead to the heating wire of the cable, mat or film. It is made in the factory, properly insulated and sealed, and put through a high-voltage dielectric test as well as insulation and contact resistance measurements. None of this happens to the crimp connectors of “infrared” films, squeezed together by the installer's fingers on a building site.

Marketing tricks

The extraordinary features of “infrared” heating films were invented by marketers to mass-sell an ordinary heat source that is cheap to make (and that also fails to meet all safety standards and is unsuitable for damp rooms, under tiles or in concrete screed) at an enormous margin. Almost all “infrared” heating films on the market are made in the Far East and sold in Poland by importers, often in business for only a few years, who pose as manufacturers and offer unrealistic long-term warranties on “their products”.

Choose proven solutions

Do not cut corners: trust technology proven over decades. Scandinavia is a perfect example of how well-designed resistive electric heating can be a reliable, sole heat source, even in bitter frost. Their success is based not on marketing illusions but on the hard laws of physics and excellent energy-efficient construction.

Traditional Scandinavian installations are usually robust heating cables embedded directly in a concrete screed, not thin films under floor panels laid “dry”. Their electrical standards (such as Norway's NEK 400) require heating cables with a full protective screen (an earthed metal braid along the entire length) and residual current devices. This ensures complete fire safety and protection against electric shock. A heating cable properly embedded in concrete is protected from oxygen and mechanical damage. With no moving parts, the system can run trouble-free for DECADES, matching the lifetime of the building itself.

These solutions also work very well in the Polish climate where, although winters have been milder in recent years, frosts well below minus 10°C can still last a couple of weeks a year.