The short answer to this question is “a lot”. But let’s talk about why an infrared grill is so much more powerful than tradition heating methods. First it’s important to understand how different types of fires and heat can create more powerful energy.
When you light a fire or see flames in a traditional grill, you may have noticed that the flames have different shads of colors. While most people would refer to them simply as different colors, technically what you are experiencing when you see this are different colors from the electromagnetic spectrum. The elctromagnetic spectrum is the entire collection of different wavelengths of visible and invisible rays that give off different wavelengths. This is difficult to understand without getting too technical, but basically the spectrum is all the different colors that you see all around you, each one giving off different wavelengths. You may already be aware that how hot certain parts of the flame are determined by the specific color that it’s giving off. That means that although all of a fire is hot, there are certain parts of it that are not as hot as other simply because the wavelenght of that color is not as high or low as another.
Take a look at the magnetic spectrum below and you’ll see the different colors a fire can give off. The further to the left of the spectrum the color is, the hotter it will be. You may notice that blue is to the far right of the color spectrum; you may have also noticed that on traditional grills you will see a bluish outline around the flame. This is because the outside of the flame is the coolest (although still hot to the touch) porition of the flame since it is making the most contact with the surrounding air and is being cooled off by the air which changes its wavelength and in-turn changes the color. At one point that ray may have been red but it changes as its properties are manipulated. So the fire is heating the air around it convectionally and thus some of its energy is lost and that is why we see a blue color. However, towards the base of the flames you will notice that colors more along the left of the spectrum begin to show up indicating that they are much hotter. This is because they are constantly having their energy replenished by the source of the flame at the base and therefore will maintain their hotter properties.
Now look further to the left of the spectrum and you will notice that we fall into the infrared category. What this tells us is that infrared energy that falls on the electromagnetic spectrum is much hotter than the flames that a traditional grill gives off. Because an infrared grill uses this end of the spectrum to heat the food you can reach temperatures much higher, much more quickly and directly than you can with a traditional grill. With an infraed grill you won’t see blue colors becuase infrared is strictly one porition of the electromagnetic spectrum, so the heat intensity stays the same. Nobody cooks a steak with a traditional grill by holding it on the lowest part of the flame (the red part). It takes too much effort and can be dangerous, but with infrared and the ability to directly transfer this red end of the spectrum you bring the heat to the food instead of the food to the heat so you are able to cook it much faster but without the dangers and effort that you would if you were using a traditional grill. That’s the beauty of infrared grills.
