The geometry of infra-red heater design plays a great part in producing a radiant heat pattern that is efficient whether close or at some distance from the heat source. Because a person located twice as far from the radiant emitter would receive only 25% of the radiant heat intensity, the infra-red heater design is such that the person located closer to the heat emitter receives only 25% of the more intense heat rays while the person twice as far away receives 100% of the less intense heat rays. Thus, both people are heated equally. This heater design does not overheat the person with excess infrared heat radiation, but spreads the even infrared heat radiation over as wide a area as possible to maintain the body warmth of several people in any given area.

Various attempts have been made to compare outdoor radiant heating efficiency with that of indoor air heaters. In most cases, the basic physics of heating people are ignored. For example, national requirements are an 80% efficiency rate (of converting the heating value of gas to the energy in heated air). However, if we consider the actual heat transferred to the human body by heating air in a room, the efficiency rate is less than 1%. While the air in a room can be confined and measured for air temperature rise, outdoor air is too volumous and free moving for any attempt to measure its temperature rise. Outdoor radiant heaters work by heating people and objects directly, and not the air.

When we talk about efficiency of outdoor heating, we are talking about the ability to heat the human body!