Therapeutic Infrared Heat

Award Winning CZ Infrared™ Portable Heaters


 

The Theory of Infrared Radiation and the related techniques of infrared heat generation are new to many who are considering using infrared heating sources. Infrared should not be confused with ultraviolet or any other form of dangerous radiation. It is actually used in many different commercial and consumer applications, such as incubators in nursery wards. The human body itself radiates infrared energy, and as the earth is warmed by infrared rays from the sun it too radiates infrared.

To understand how infrared relates to the body, imagine sunbathing at the beach. When the sun is out you can feel its heat warming your body, but if a cloud moves in and momentarily blocks the sun, you feel a slight chill. This is because although the air temperature itself has not had time to cool, the cloud is preventing the infrared rays of the sun from reaching you.

The History of Infrared & Infrared Technology

The name infrared comes from the Latin word infra, meaning “below”. Red is the color of the longest wavelengths of visible light. Infrared light has a longer wavelength than that of red light. A longer wavelength means it has a lower frequency than red, hence "below".

Sir William Herschel, an amateur astronomer famous for the discovery of Uranus in 1781, discovered infrared in the early 19th century. Herschel was familiar with Newton’s discovery that sunlight could be separated into its separate chromatic components via refraction through a glass prism. Herschel hypothesized that the colors themselves might contain different levels of heat, so he devised an experiment to test his theory. Herschel passed sunlight through a glass prism to create a spectrum (the rainbow created when light is divided into its color components) and measured the temperatures of the different colors. He used three thermometers with blackened bulbs and placed one bulb in each color while the other two were placed outside the spectrum as controls.

As he measured the temperature of the violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red light, he noticed that all the colors had temperatures higher than the controls and that the temperature increased from the violet to the red part of the spectrum. After understanding this pattern, Herschel measured the temperature just beyond the red portion of the spectrum and found this area had the highest temperature of all and thus contained the most heat. What Herschel discovered was a form of light beyond red light. Herschel’s experiment lead to the discovery of infrared light.

Infrared is a section, or "band" of invisible light found on the electromagnetic spectrum. It's a form of radiant heat that can also be called "infrared energy." About 80% of the sun's rays actually fall in this part of the spectrum. Far infrared, the energy produced in CZ Infrared™ Heaters, is the form of this energy that occupies the region where wave frequencies measure between 5.5 and 15 microns. See the graph below:

The electromagnetic spectrum is the entire range of radiant energies, measured as waves or frequencies. It is divided into three segments by wavelength measured in microns. A wavelength of 0.076 to 1.5 microns is "near" infrared, 1.5 to 5.6 microns is "middle" infrared, and 5.6 to 1000 microns is "far" infrared (FIR). This invisible band of light warms objects without warming the surrounding air. The best example of this is the sun. Consider standing in the sun on a cold day. You feel warmth from the sun even though the air temperature is cold. This warmth you feel is far infrared penetrating your body to a depth of 1.5 to 3.5 inches. Infrared heat is, therefore, a completely safe energy that raises the temperature in objects without having to heat the surrounding air. Approximately 80% of the sun's rays fall into the infrared range. (This should not be confused with ultraviolet rays, which are harmful to the skin.)

Infrared energy is not visible to the human eye but can been seen with special cameras that translate the light into visible colors. Our bodies radiate far infrared energy through the skin at between 3 and 50 microns. Our palms emit infrared energy between 8 and 14 microns. (You can experience this by holding your palms near each other without touching.) Palm healing, with a 3000-year history in China, is based on the natural healing properties of far infrared energy.

Although heat therapy has been in use for mental, physical and spiritual well being for hundreds of years, technology has only relatively recently allowed the direct use of infrared as a source of energy for heating the body. This application of infrared began in the early to mid 20th century in Germany, and has been actively developed by Japanese doctors and therapists for the last 40 years. Since the early 1980's, infrared therapy has been further refined and sold in the United States and many European countries.

The health benefits of the infrared heater have been widely documented, and will continue to be in the future as its use and popularity increase. Regardless of the debate over the specific advantages of infrared heaters, there can be no doubt that they do deliver many health and cost savings benefits. And in recognizing this, Earthwise Innovations is proud to offer infrared heaters with the most effective infrared heating characteristics that the market has to offer.

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How Earthwise has Advanced Infrared Technology in Heating Applications

CZ Infrared™ Heaters are industry leaders in infrared wave generation. There are numerous claims in the industry over the virtues of using copper and other materials to enhance the performance of an infrared heater. When you do the research, however, you will find that there is no substantial scientific evidence for the claims. With most of the industry, this is the case. For example, everyone talks about the merits of copper in their heaters supposedly to retain heat. This brings the question to mind: How does the retention of heat within the heater benefit the objects in a room? The true significance of using copper lining is to regulate the internal temperature of the heater at precisely the right temperature to produce the desired length of infrared wave. There is nothing new about this technology. The real innovation comes in the design of the heat exchanger itself.

To design an efficient heat exchanger, one has to consider the amount of copper used, the internal temperature desired to to optimize the wave frequency, and the dwell time of the air moving across the heat exchanger. Without taking all three of these design parameters into consideration, you will not end up with an efficient infrared heater.

The U.S. utility patents for the CZ Infrared™ Heater cover more than thirty claims that clearly define the engineering parameters that were utilized in the final heater design. It is the design parameters of the CZ Infrared™ Heater that set it apart from all other infrared heaters. In independent lab tests conducted on the CZ Infrared™ Heater and our competitor, the CZ Infrared™ Heater was 14% more efficient.

The CZ Infrared™ Heater works by using infrared heating elements or "emitters" to generate far infrared energy within the heat chamber. Infrared heat penetrates objects in a room, and these objects then radiate heat back into the room. These "waves" of invisible light are also selectively absorbed through the skin and penetrate into bodily tissue up to a depth of 1 to 1.5 inches. The tissue then responds in a process known as "resonant absorption", where the body tissues selectively absorb these rays as the water in the cell reacts, causing the body to heat up. This occurs when the frequency of the far infrared matches the frequency of the water in the cell, causing toxins to be dropped off into the blood stream and excreted in sweat, feces, and urine.

Far-infrared light penetrates beyond the skin level and is absorbed efficiently by cells below, whereas visible light is mostly bounced off the skin surface. Near-infrared is mostly absorbed at the skin level and raises the skin temperature. Far-infrared can penetrate up to 4 centimeters (about 1-1/2 inches), exciting the vibrational energy of molecules and resonating with cellular frequencies. We can't exactly perceive the deep heating effects of FIR, though, because our body's ability to sense heat is mainly at the skin level. Nonetheless, the effects of FIR rays promote bioprocesses such as increased metabolism and blood circulation, and can raise core body temperature. NASA certainly understood some of these effects when it developed FIR materials for radiant heat during space travel. Hospitals have also taken advantage of some of these properties to keep newborn babies warm using FIR materials around incubators.

Infrared heat is efficient because it warms you, rather than the air around you. The body absorbs as much as 93 percent of this heat, producing an array of healthful benefits. The infrared heater radiates heat penetrating the skin to a depth of 1.5 to 3.5 inches. It operates at temperatures of 280° to 300°F, internally, with an exhaust temperature of 168°F. (Note: Most infrared saunas operate at 140° to 145°F, comparable to the heat in a CZ Infrared™ Heater.)

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