There are three major types of heat:

The first is radiant heat. Radiant heat can be generated utilizing combustion or the burning of a fossil fuel, i.e. natural gas, wood, oil, etc. It can also be generated using electrical current to heat a coil, as in a base-board heater, or to heat different liquids such as oil in a portable radiator. Radiant heat is a very long wave form that can actually be seen radiating off the earth's surface in a mirage, or off the top of a wall radiator. It is a very long wave pattern.

The second is solar radiation. Solar radiation is a very short wave pattern that includes all hose wavelengths in the light spectrum that are both harmful and beneficial. Solar radiation is responsible for you’re the burn you get by sitting to close to a fire or disc heater or by sitting out in the sun too long. Ultraviolet radiation falls into this solar radiation spectrum. Solar radiation has a very short wave pattern that cannot be detected by the human eye. Ultraviolet radiation, for example, is a type of solar radiation and the wave pattern varies from approximately 180 nanometers to 270 nanometers.

A third form of radiation is infrared radiation. It is the safest and most effective type of radiation to use for warming up the objects in a room, including the human body. The BioSmart® Far Infrared Heater uses safe infrared radiation to efficiently convert electrical power into therapeutic far infrared heat. Infrared heat is by far the most economical type of heat for zone or area heating. Infrared waves vary from 5 to 14 microns which is much longer than solar radiation but much shorter than radiant heat waves. Infrared radiation is the perfect wave form for the most efficient heating systems. Far infrared heat is also the most therapeutic type of heat, which is why it is used universally for all medical applications requiring heat applications, as well as the preferred heat type in most saunas. Far infrared Saunas produce the same far infrared wave that the BioSmart® Far Infrared Heater produces.