When it comes to fuelling your patio heater there are really just two choices: gas or electric. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages.
Gas Patio Heaters
With a gas heater you have two choices: a heater which produces a visible flame to provide both heat and light; or a more traditional gas heater which features a burning element.
Gas heaters with visible flames are spectacular to look at but are much more expensive compared to the traditional alternative. Both types of heater do of course contain some sort of flame, produced from burning gas, so also come with the responsibility of being aware of the dangers this presents.
The power of gas heaters is measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs), and it’s difficult to know exactly how many BTUs you’ll need to heat a certain area. However, a general rule of thumb is to have approximately 5000 BTUs per 30 m².
You will need to buy either butane or propane gas canisters to fuel your gas heater. Some heaters can be fuelled by either gas, whereas others specify which type to use. Check the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific heater.
Propane is a popular choice for people living in colder climates. This is because it has a very low boiling temperature of -42°C. Propane has also been shown to produce more heat than butane.
Butane will be a suitable choice for most of the year in the UK. It has a boiling temperature of -2°C which means that it isn’t a good fuel in very cold weather. It’s marginally cheaper than propane, plus it doesn’t burn as fast. This makes it a good choice if you’ll be using your gas patio heater frequently, as you won’t burn through your fuel supplies unnecessarily quickly.
You will also need a gas regulator to connect the canister to the heater. Some heaters come with these already included, whereas others don’t. Different regulators exist, with different connectors. You need to make sure that the connectors between the canister and regulator are compatible, otherwise you won’ t be able to hook them up. When choosing which canister to buy, check that you have the correct regulator, and vis versa.
Finally, having a gas heater means you need to deal with the upkeep of gas canisters; this means buying them, storing them, and disposing of them safely when empty. This can put some people off, so it’s something to bear in mind.
Electric Patio heaters
Electric heaters use ‘radiant heat’ and are normally in the form of infrared lamps. They are generally more lightweight, and more versatile, than gas heaters. Freestanding and wall mounted versions are widely available. Electric heaters also tend to be cheaper to run than gas heaters and operate quietly (gas heaters can ‘roar’ when burning fuel).
Another advantage of electrical heaters is that they use mains power, so you don’t have to worry about running out of fuel. The downside of this is that they need to be placed near a mains socket. A lot of electric heaters have a power cable of only 2 – 3 meters long. Therefore, if the socket is far away, you may be left with a lot of impractical wires trailing across your patio.
If it’s too impractical to plug in an electric heater, a gas-powered heater might be more suitable.
A common concern with electric appliances is not being able to ‘see’ how much money you’re spending whilst using them. Fortunately, it’s very straight forward to work out how much it will cost you to run an electric heater.
Calculate how much it will cost you to run an electric heater:
- First you need to know how much your energy provider charges you for 1 kWh. For this example we will presume that they charge 18.54p /kWh, which was the 2019 average.
- Find out the wattage of the heater. Most electric heaters have more than one heat setting and use different a different wattage on each setting. For this example we will use settings of 800 W, 1600 W and 2500 W.
- Divide the appliance’s wattage by 1000 to find out how many kilowatts it uses per hour. In this example, at 800 W the heater would use 0.8 kW/h, on 1600 W it would use 1.6 kW/h, and on 2500 W it would use 2.5 kW/h.
- Multiply the price you pay per kW/h (18.54p) by the number of kilowatts the heater uses in one hour. This will give you the cost of running the heater for one hour.
- 800 W = 0.8 X 18.54 = £0.15 per hour
- 1600 W = 1.6 X 18.54 = £0.30 per hour
- 2500 W = 2.5 X 18.54 = £0.46 per hour