Infrared Heater vs Convection: What to Source for Your Market

You've probably seen the comparison charts online. Infrared vs convection. Radiant vs warm air. Every manufacturer has an opinion, and most of them are trying to sell you something. Let's cut through that.

We've built both types on the same line since 2009. I've watched buyers make the wrong choice because they trusted a spec sheet over physics. Here's what actually matters when you're deciding what to put in your container.

The core difference is not the heat source

Both heaters use electricity. Both have a heating element. The difference is what happens after that element gets hot.

A convection heater heats the air. The air rises, circulates, and warms the room slowly. An infrared heater heats objects and people directly, like sunlight. The air stays cooler, but you feel warm faster.

That sounds simple. But it changes everything about how the heater performs in a real room.

Where infrared wins

If your customer is buying for a garage, workshop, or any space with high ceilings, infrared is the practical choice. Convection heat rises to the ceiling and sits there. Infrared doesn't care about ceiling height. It warms the workbench, the tools, the person standing there.

I've tested this in our own factory. A 1200W infrared panel in a 30-square-meter workshop keeps a worker comfortable at 3 meters from the unit. A 1500W convection heater in the same space leaves the floor cold and the rafters warm.

Infrared also wins for outdoor or semi-open areas. Patios, loading docks, drive-through service bays. You can't heat the wind. But you can heat the person standing in it.

Another point: infrared heaters are silent. No fan, no moving parts. If your customer is sourcing for a bedroom or a nursery, that's a selling point. A silent electric heater isn't a luxury. It's a requirement for light sleepers.

Where convection wins

Convection heaters are better at heating a whole, enclosed room evenly. A living room, an office, a bedroom. If the customer wants to set a thermostat at 20 degrees and forget about it, convection is the workhorse.

Oil-filled radiators are the classic example. They heat oil inside the fins, then radiate and convect that heat over hours. They don't blast hot air. They just sit there and keep the room warm. That's why the oil filled radiator vs convection heater debate is really about heat retention. Radiators hold heat longer after the thermostat clicks off. A fan-forced convection heater stops heating the moment you switch it off.

For energy efficiency, convection heaters with a good thermostat and a timer can be very cheap to run. They cycle on and off rather than running flat out. A 1500W unit running 30% of the time uses about 0.45 kWh per hour. That's a number you can put in your product listing.

What buyers actually ask us

Most of our B2B customers come to us with a target price and a target market. They don't ask about physics. They ask about certifications and lead times.

For infrared panels, the standard is a 700W to 1200W wall-mounted unit. For convection, it's usually a 1500W or 2000W oil-filled radiator. If you're sourcing for the UK or EU, you need CE and ERP compliance. For the UK, add UKCA. We do all of those in-house, and our standard MOQ is 200 pcs per model. Lead time is 30 days for a mixed container, 45 days if you want custom color or branding.

One thing I'll tell you straight: don't source a 12V electric heater for a campervan from us. That's a different product category entirely. We make mains-voltage units. If your market is RV or campervan, look for a manufacturer that specializes in 12V DC. Mixing that up will cost you returns.

The honest takeaway

Here's the decision rule we give every buyer who visits our factory. If your customer needs to feel warm quickly in a drafty or open space, source infrared. If they need to keep a sealed room at a steady temperature for hours, source convection. If they want both, offer both.

Don't try to make one product do everything. A hybrid unit is heavier, more expensive, and more likely to fail. The market rewards clarity. Pick your niche, source accordingly, and your customers will come back for the next season.