text: how is infrared heat created? i understandd all the heat transfer stuff and how it behaves like light but what literally causes the heat to be produced?  i assume it's something on the atomic level but can't find what i think u know the making of infrared. but i tell u when we heat any material, it's electrons gets exited to high energy levels by getting some energy and when they came back to their original orbit then they release this energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. infrared is one of the elecromagnetic radiation and when it falls at a material, it causes vibration to it. by this physical work the material gets heated.