If you are specifying infrared for a yoga, Pilates or wellness studio, the first question is usually the wrong one. It is not “bars or panels?” — it is “what temperature do my classes run at?” Answer that, and the hardware choice mostly answers itself.
The difference that decides it: target temperature
Both products emit far infrared, and both warm people and surfaces directly rather than heating the air. That is why an infrared studio feels warm quickly, with no fan, no airflow across the mats and no drying of the air. This radiant approach is the subject of the UK government’s 2025 report Infrared heating: investigations from literature and user experience tests, and of research at Leeds Beckett University into whether infrared lets people feel comfortable at lower air temperatures. Where they differ is how much heat they put into a given area.
- Infrared panels are specified for 24–32°C. Gentler warmth spread over a larger radiating surface.
- Infrared heater bars are specified for 32–40°C. Higher output, more concentrated.
So a warm flow, vinyasa, reformer Pilates, mat Pilates, barre or recovery room sits inside panel territory. A hot yoga, hot Pilates, hot barre or hot reformer room needs bars. For reference, an ACE-sponsored study of hot yoga recorded classes averaging around 33°C. Bikram, which runs hotter still, is a separate conversation again.
How much output does a studio actually need?
As a working guide:
- Hot classes: roughly 70–100 W per m² to hold 32–40°C
- Reformer Pilates and warm-flow spaces: roughly 45–65 W per m²
A 60 m² studio running hot classes therefore lands somewhere around 4.2–6 kW. That is a starting range, not a quote — it moves with insulation, glazing, occupancy and how long the room sits empty between classes.
Ceiling height matters as much as floor area
This is the part that catches people out. Infrared is a radiant field, and above about 3 m that field has further to travel to reach the people on the mats. A room of the same floor area with a higher ceiling needs more output, not the same. Two 60 m² studios can have genuinely different specifications for this reason alone.
When a panel is the better choice
Panels suit rooms where the heat needs to be even and unobtrusive rather than intense:
- Warm flow and vinyasa, reformer and mat Pilates, barre, stretch and recovery
- Treatment and wellness rooms
- Lower ceilings
- Studios where the interior matters — panels mount flush to ceiling or wall and leave the walls free for mirrors, reformers and props
When a bar is the better choice
- Hot classes with a genuine 32–40°C target
- Higher ceilings, where concentrated output does more work
- Rooms with demanding heat-up times between back-to-back classes
When you need both
Plenty of studios end up with a combination, and zoning bars and panels together across a larger room is common. At YOURS Studio in London the combined system holds a consistent 38°C — panels doing the even background warmth, bars carrying the room up to hot-class temperature.
What a guide like this cannot tell you
Watts per square metre is a sanity check, not a design. We size every system from a floor plan rather than selling by the square metre, because the same number of square metres behaves differently depending on ceiling height, insulation, glazing and how the room is used through the day.
If you want the calculation done for your room, talk to us and we will work from your plan.
Where to read more
- Infrared heating for yoga and wellness studios — the overview
- Yoga Balance Infrared Bar and Yoga Balance Infrared Panel
- Hot yoga studios and Pilates studios
- Studio case studies — what the installed systems actually hold
- How infrared heating works, including the UK government’s research on the technology
0 comments