2021 - Volume #45, Issue #2, Page #26
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Infrared Panels Deliver Safe Heat
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“Applications for their use are only as limited as your imagination,” says Villa, Innovative Green Energy Solutions. “They can be used in places where traditional heat can’t be used due to combustion concerns. Infrared heat is like what we get from the sun. You feel warm even if the air temperature is cold.”
Villa is the only agriculture and canine focused dealer for Washington-based Prestyl infrared heating panels. The first time she saw one of the panels was while attending a presentation outside on a cool day in 2012.
“The presenter had this small panel in front of the audience, and I was 3 or 4 rows away from it,” recalls Villa. “I gradually realized it was warming me. I didn’t buy whatever that guy was selling, but I did find out who made the panels.”
She soon went from customer to dealer for residential and commercial businesses, including agriculture. Initially, Villa marketed the panels to purebred dog breeders for their whelping kennels. Gradually she expanded her marketing to livestock producers, everything from chickens to cattle, sheep and more.
“Animals do better under an infrared panel than under a heat lamp,” she notes. “Once they know it is there, they will choose it over a heat light. One user told me they can hang 5 heat lamps and 1 panel, and the area under the panel will be packed full of lambs with none of them under the heat lamps.”
Villa notes that the panels are safe and portable. She adds that they are tough as well and can survive being knocked down and jumped on by young animals.
“I have a lot of Amish customers who use them with solar panels and batteries,” says Villa. “They buy one to use over newborn dairy calves or puppies. In a few months they buy another one, adding a panel as they add more solar.”
Villa offers 8 sizes of the 1 1/2-in thick panels. They range from a 12 by 14.4-in. 150-watt panel ($195) to a 42 by 42-in. 1,100-watt panel ($825). She helps customers size panels to the space to be heated.
“You could hang a small panel over a single hutch or a larger one over several pens,” says Villa. “I had one sheep and goat producer who was going to buy a smaller panel for use in part of an 8 by 12-foot room. He decided instead to install a 550-watt panel to cover the entire room.”
Villa requires only limited information to recommend an appropriate size unit. “I need the zip code to calculate energy needs for your area and weather,” she says. “I also need a sketch or blueprints of the building.”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Innovative Green Energy Solutions, P.O. Box 908, West Plains, Mo. 65775 (ph 417 274-3376; infraredheatedkennels@gmail.com).
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