Infra Red Hot Yoga: Air Temperature vs How You Feel

Thinking Of Using Infra Red Heating For Hot Yoga?

I guess this is a gentle reminder to those using infra red heating, or thinking of using infra red heating for their yoga studio - there is an important point to make about how we use the desired air temperature of the room to determine how much power is needed from the panel heaters.

Heats Like The Sun

The type of heat emitted from the heaters is the same as the type of heat we experience from standing in the sun on a hot day.  Yes, the air temperature has increased because of the infra red waves from the sun, but that is due to the sun heating the earth's surface, the buildings, the trees and anything else in the way of the infra red waves.  This is the way that infra red heating panels work - they simply heat like the sun.

Standing on the mountain

Picture: Beliefnet.com

We have to use a standard air room thermostat to turn the heating on in the room, and to give the heaters a target to aim for - however, what you experience on your skin from the infra red heaters and what the room temperature is, will be different.  It goes back to the example of how radiant heating works in the winter months - stand on a mountain side (if you are in a fortunate enough position to do so!), where temperatures are in the minus but with a clear blue sky, and you will feel heat from the sun even though the air is cold - this is how radiant heating works - it is the direct heat transfer from one object to another and not how high the air temperature of the room is.  So, we use a room thermostat to turn the heaters on to maximum power and then use the thermostat to turn them off when the air temperature of say 40⁰C is reached - and, if you practice long enough in a room where you have X number of heaters pumping out non harmful infra red waves you will experience the heat, that's for sure.


If you need people to feel warmth as soon as they walk in to the room, simply use a fan heater (see pic), booster heater or fan coil to warm the air up.

FRICO Fan Heater - Perfect For Pre  Heating

The fan heater can be plugged in to the mains power supply in between classes to raise the temperature of the air to a level that will feel very warm upon entering, all the while the infra red heaters will get to work heating the surfaces and eventually the yogis as they begin their practice.

The fan heaters we supply are manufactured to an industrial standard by  FRICO, Sweden (and they sure know a lot about chilly climates!

Hope that helps!

If you would any more information on how we go about selecting the right number of heaters, give us a call - we look at the following:

• Maximum number of people in the room
• The maximum air temperature required
• Size of the room
• The mounting height of the heaters
• Humidity control
• Ventilation