Infrared heat

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

Good point, John. Thank you.

The more elements is really an attempt to create more efficiency in the application.

The early versions only had three settings, 1500w, 750w, and off.
Both elements were on for 1500w, one was on for the 750w.

So you could turn down the heater if you felt too hot.
The IR heaters, especially the quartz, could become overbearing... and the user would turn them down.
The industry, most likely because the cost of operating them, added more elements so the units could be turned down further.

I first saw this in the resistance heaters. They made them look like fireplaces with a ''lightshow'' and sometimes would use a fan that had multiple settings based on a temperature setting that could be found on a digital display.