About Outdoor Heaters

Outdoor Electric Heaters are fast becoming the standard products used in domestic, industrial and commercial environments such as pubs, clubs, bars, cafes and restaurants, wishing to benefit from instant Alfresco heat as and when it is needed. The range of Outdoor Electric Heaters has increased significantly over the last few years and you can now find waterproof electric heaters that can be either wall mounted or free standing.

 

Economic Common Sense

Outdoor Electric Heaters make sense, not just commercial sense but also environmental sense. Commercially, the cost of Outdoor Electric Heaters is about 13 pence per kilowatt per hour (IRE 15 cents) and with the average outdoor heater using about 4 kilowatts of power, a typical pub or club, with say two of these heaters, will only be consuming electricity at a rate of £1.02 an hour. To make a direct comparison, two equivalent gas outdoor heaters will be costing something in the order of £7.14 per hour in gas alone to run, so economically Outdoor Electric Heaters are definitely the way to go.

Infrared heaters are cheaper to run because the infrared heat derived from the quartz heaters is beamed rather like that of a light in a torch or flood lamp and therefore can be directed onto the people that need the heat, as apposed to gas patio heaters which send out heat in 360°, much of which goes straight up into the air. The other significant difference is that 94% of the heat from an Alfresco electric heater is infrared and therefore heats the person rather than the air in between the person and the heater, with their gas counterparts only 40% of the heat is truly infrared, in which case, 60% of it is simply heating the air in between the user and the heater. This is highly inefficient, extremely wasteful and not at all environmentally sound.

 

Safer

Outdoor Electric Heaters also have a much better safety record than their gas counterparts. This is largely due to the fact that the majority are mounted high, well out of the reach of probing fingers where they can provide their heat silently and efficiently without interference. Gas heaters have the potential to be knocked over by accident and fall onto unsuspecting victims causing severe burns. In this day and age when all businesses have to take much more seriously the health and safety issues, Outdoor Electric Heating is a far safer option.

 

Comfort Levels & Power Requirements

The next key thing to consider when buying Outdoor Electric Heaters is the amount of power needed to provide the level of outdoor heat required in any given circumstance. We advise a minimum of 3 kilowatt of heat for every 5 square meters, however, there is a big caveat with that calculation! It is important to consider the extremes of when the heater is going to be used, if the Outdoor Electric Heater is being used only in the spring, summer and autumn the amount of heat needed will be considerably less than if it is also required to work in the extremes of winter. Clearly, if you want to heat, say a pub smoking patio when it is -4° outside in the middle of February, a considerable amount more heat is needed to achieve the given comfort level. More powerful heaters will project the heat at greater distance, therefore if you are looking to heat a long narrow area and the heater can only be placed on the narrow wall you will need a lot more power from that one specific heater to push the heat in that direction. The Alfresco ALF60 and ALF80 models are excellent examples of heaters that will project its heat a great distance away from the source and is excellent for such environments.

We are often asked what height wall mounted Electric Outdoor Heaters should be placed at. Alfresco heaters require a minimum 2.3m along with our brackets that allow the heaters to be angled downwards for the customers that require the heat. As the heat is largely directed towards them with little escaping behind, you don’t normally have to worry about the heater effecting the ceiling or the canopy under which it is mounted. Heaters mounted at this height will negate safety concerns as it’s clearly better if they can’t be touched or interfered with by customers or their children.

 

Your Business Needs?

Where financially practical we would always recommend customers buy heaters that can generate enough heat for their worst given scenario. Timer switches have become a very popular accessory. These allow customers to turn the Outdoor Electric Heaters on at will. The switches are programmed to allow the heaters to remain on for a fixed period of time usually set between 10-30 minutes, after which the heater will automatically be turn itself off, thus saving any wasted heat and of course wasted electricity. Another option are motion sensors which will automatically switch the heater on when it detects the presence of a person within its given vicinity, this again can be programmed for 10-30 minutes duration and of course if the person is still within its presence it won’t switch off at all.

 

Increasing Your Revenues and Comfort

All the signs are that Outdoor Electric Heaters are here to stay and they can transform any drab and dreary courtyard into a warm and welcoming environment in which people can enjoy so much more of the outdoors than was ever previously possible. In the UK we are perhaps too used to only using our gardens, patios and courtyards for a very limited period in the year after which they are battened down and the doors closed again until next summer, however, now this is no longer the case. More and more owners of pubs and clubs are finding that by utilising their outdoor space for a much greater period of the year they can dramatically increase the revenues gained from their businesses. This has become all the more pertinent since the recent smoking ban where those with foresight are making sure they provide comfortable space for their smoking customers to frequent. Even in home environment many smokers are choosing to smoke outdoors in their own back gardens or patios. With an Electric Outdoor Heater they can have instant heat as soon as the switch is flicked, which can be turned off again in an instant. This was never possible with gas patio heaters which are gradually getting phased out due to environmental and efficiency concerns.

And that’s why Alfresco Heaters can help your business to increase customer comfort and grow revenues.