Infrared Heat

What are your opinions on infrared heat? I have a wood stove and in-floor heat in a large family room and a shop. I travel quite a bit for work and would prefer if the wife didn’t have to deal with filling the stove when I’m gone. I am looking at infrared options for each space.

Family Room – 800 sq ft with 14 ft ceiling, 1 exterior wall, good insulation – Considering an entertainment center with a built in infrared heater for heating in transition seasons. The specs say they can heat up to 1,000 sq ft. Are these efficient in heating a large room? Do they truly heat objects in direct line of sight only? How quickly do they heat a space through secondary heating? Are the residential models at Menards, Home Depot all the same? Are the fans loud?

Shop – 60×35 with 14 ceiling. How about the ceiling mounted infrared tubular heaters in a shop/garage? I do have a Reznor LP furnace in the shop also, so I would only consider a change based on comfort and efficiency. Does anyone have experience with both?

IMO you’re going backwards if you install an electric infrared heater, they use a ton of power. If it’s run for a day or two every couple weeks then it’s probably the way to go. However if it’s for weeks at a time then it may be cheaper in the long run to install a gas boiler inline on the in floor heat and switch over to that when you need. Also when you shut off the in floor heat it will probably take a while to heat back up when you get back home.

And yes infrared only heats what’s in front of them then slowly warms the room. Fans help to circulate the warmth.

I had a family member who sold those tube heaters, they are fairly nice, but again only heat what’s in front of them and tend to over heat things directly in front of them. I prefer the Reznor/HotDawg ceiling style myself. But would much rather have infloor heat.

Why not a gas fired boiler to run the in floor heat on as a backup?