Infrared Heat Lamps vs Halogen Heat Lamps: What’s the Difference?

Heat lamps are used for a variety of applications that range from warming up food in restaurants to providing therapeutic heat for animals and humans.  The most commonly available types of heat lamps are infrared and halogen heat lamps.  They both work via different methods and offer different advantages and disadvantages.  Understanding these methods and the key differences between these two lamps will be key to helping you choose the right one for your needs.

Halogen Heat Lamps

Halogen heat lamps are a type of incandescent lamp made that uses a tungsten filament encased in a compact, transparent envelope made of quartz glass. The glass is then filled with a small amount of halogen gas, such as iodine or bromine.  When the tungsten filament heats up, it begins to evaporate. The halogen gas then reacts with the evaporating tungsten vapor and this prevents it from depositing on the quartz envelope. Instead, it redeposits the tungsten back onto the filament and produces light.

Halogen lamps produce an immediate high intensity heat which can appear as a bright source of light.  They are used when high intensity heat is required quickly.  This is needed for outdoor heating and certain industrial processes.  They are not as energy efficient as infrared lamps and they emit a fairly large amount of near-infrared radiation (light that cannot be seen by the human eye alone).

Infrared Heat Lamps

Infrared (IR) heat lamps are primarily designed to emit radiation in the infrared spectrum, which is absorbed by objects and surfaces and this causes the same objects and surfaces to heat up.  This process is called radiant heat transfer. They will have a resistive heating element built in which is often a ceramic element or a specialized filament that operates at a lower temperature than a halogen filament.  Infrared heat lamps are a good choice for targeted heating as they do not need to heat the air in between in order ro hear the desired object or surface.

Infrared heat lamps are viewed as emitting a “softer” heat as they warm up nearby surfaces rather than the surrounding air.  They can be categorized as Near-Infrared , Mid-Infrared, or Far-Infrared, depending on the wavelength and temperature of the lamp.  They are more energy efficient than halogen heat lamps as energy is not wasted on heating the surrounding air.  These lamps produce a minimal amount of light and the vast majority of heat produced by the lamp cannot be seen by the naked eye.  For these reasons infrared heat lamps are widely used to keep food warm, animal husbandry and for some medical/therapeutic treatments.