Radiant heat is simply a form of energy that heats objects directly through a process called conversion, without having to heat the air in between. Radiant heat is also called infrared energy (IR). The infrared segment of the electromagnetic spectrum is divided into 3 segments by wave length, measured in microns or micrometers (a micron = 1/1,000,000 of meter): 0.076 – 1.5 microns = near or close; 1.5 – 5.6 = intermediate; 5.6-1,000= far or long wave infrared. The infrared segment of the electromagnetic spectrum occurs just below or "infra" to red light, which we perceive as heat. Our sun produces most of its energy output in the infrared segment of the spectrum. Our atmosphere allows IR rays in the 7-14 micron range to safely reach the earth’s surface. When warmed, the earth radiates infrared rays in the 7-14 micron band with its peak output at 10 microns.

The sun is the principal source of radiant energy that we experience daily. Have you ever been outside on a partly cloudy spring day of about 50 deg? And felt quite comfortable when suddenly the sun was obscured by a cloud? Although the air temperature had not had time to drop, you felt chilled, as the cloud would not let the warming infrared rays through to reach you. The infrared heat in your FIR heat sauna is just like the heat from our sun or that which our own bodies produce as they burn fuel to keep us warm.

The source of infrared heat in your infrared sauna is actually a ceramic tube or cube, warmed by an electrical wire embedded within it. This zircon ceramic emitting tube is shielded by a metallic grill that is covered by a soft coating of suede-ex, and is safe to touch while it is operating.

Recent books such as Cross Currents, by Robert O. Becker, M.D., have detailed the hazards of exposure to certain kinds of electromagnetic fields such as those encountered under high tension power lines or while working at computer display terminals. Researchers have reported that infrared radiant heat antidotes the negative effects of such toxic electromagnetic sources.

Infrared sauna saunas use infrared radiant energy to directly penetrate the body’s tissues a depth of over 11/2". It’s energy output is tuned to correspond so closely to the body’s own radiant energy that our bodies absorb more than 90% of the infrared waves that reach our skin.

A conventional sauna must rely only on indirect means of heat: First, on convection (air currents) and then conduction (direct contact of hot air with the skin) to produce its heating effect on us. In infrared sauna less than 20% of the infrared energy heats the air, leaving over 80% available to be directly converted to heat within our bodies. Thus an IR based system can warm its user(s) to much greater depth and much more efficiently than a conventional sauna, as its energy output is primarily used to convert energy directly to heat in us and not create excessively hot air that then only heats the skin superficially. This crucial difference explains many of the unprecedented benefits reported to be available through an infrared sauna. The infrared energy applied in these thermal systems may induce up to 2-3 times the sweat volume of a hot-air sauna while operating at a significantly cooler air temperature range of 110 to 130 F. vs. 180 to 235F for hot air saunas. The lower heat range is safer for those concerned about cardiovascular risk factors that might be adversely affected by the higher temperatures encountered in old-style saunas. Researchers report beneficial effects from hour-long whole-body infrared exposure in two groups of hypertensive patients that they studied in 1989 including 24-hour long increase in peripheral blood flow and decreases in the blood pressure.

An infrared sauna is easier as well as more comfortable to use than old-fashioned hot-air saunas. Hot-air saunas require extensive warm-up periods of 30-60 minutes, making them much less practical than the modern infrared sauna, which warms up in only 5-10 minutes from room temperature. Consistent and convenient at home use is thus, much more likely with an infrared sauna. Significantly lower operating costs makes your infrared sauna more desirable than a regular sauna. A 20-minute session, including a 10 minute warm-up in your infrared sauna, costs about 5 cents of electricity. A comparable session with a full warm-up in a conventional sauna costs about $.75 - $1.00. Daily usage of an infrared sauna will raise your electricity bill by only $1.50 a month compared to $22.50 to $30.00 a month in a conventional sauna, if each is used for 20 minutes after warm-up.
Your infrared sauna brings you the same infrared rays experienced in the traditional American Indian sweat lodge and bring them to you in a much more convenient and easily used form, the privacy or your on home. The cleansing and purifying benefits attributed to the traditional sweat lodges are now available for daily purification without the time-consuming and extremely labor-intensive set-up process that a sweat lodge requires.

Passive Cardiovascular Conditioning Effect

Your infrared sauna makes it possible for people who are otherwise unable to exert themselves or who won’t follow through on an exercising and conditioning program to achieve a cardiovascular training effect. This also allows for more variety in any ongoing training program.
"Many of us who run do so to place a demand on our cardiovascular system, not to build big leg muscles. Regular use of a sauna may impart a similar stress on the cardiovascular system, and its regular use may be as effective, as a means of cardiovascular conditioning and burning of calories and regular exercise." As reported in the Journal of American Medical Association, August 7, 1987.

Due to the deep penetration, over 1-1/2" into the skin, of the infrared rays generated by your infrared sauna there is a heating effect deep in the muscular tissues and the internal organs. The body responds to this deep-heating effect via hypothalamic-induced increase in both heart volume and rate. This beneficial heart stress leads to a sought-after cardiovascular training and conditioning effect. Medical research confirms the use of a sauna provides cardiovascular conditioning as the body works to cool itself and involves substantial increases in heart rate, cardiac output and metabolic rate. As a confirmation of the validity of this form of cardiovascular conditioning, extensive research by NASA in the early 1980’s led to the conclusion that infrared stimulation of cardiovascular function would be the ideal way to maintain cardiovascular conditioning in American astronauts during long space flight. Blood flow during whole-body hypothermia is reported to rise from a normal 5-7 pints per minute to as much as 13 pints per minute.

"The 1980’s was the decade of high-impact aerobics classes and high-mileage training. Yet there was something elitist about the way exercise was prescribed: only strenuous workouts would do, you had to raise your heart rate to between X and Y, the only way was to ‘go for the burn". And such strictures insured that most ‘real’ exercisers were relatively young and in good shape to begin with., Many, many Americans got caught up in the fitness boom, but probably just as many fell by the wayside. As we’ve reported, recent research shows that you don’t have to run marathons to become fit- that burning just 1,000 calories a week…is enough. Anything goes, as long as it burns these calories." Reported in the Wellness Letter, October 1990, from the University of California Berkeley.