Running cost

What a season of patio heating costs

Everyone publishes cost per hour, which is the number that sounds small. The number that decides whether you keep using the patio is what a whole season adds up to.

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Every site in this category, including this one, publishes cost per hour, because it is the honest unit for comparing appliances. It is also the unit that makes everything sound affordable. $1.40 an hour is a coffee. Nobody flinches at it.

The flinch arrives in April. A patio heater is not used for an hour, it is used for an evening, several times a week, for a season — and the multiplication is what people have not done.

A seasonal figure is only as good as its assumptions, so here are ours in full. Change any of them and the arithmetic moves.

• A 20-week season. Roughly October through February in a temperate US climate. Yours may be far longer or shorter.
• Three hours per evening. The length of an actual evening outside, not a token half hour.
• One heater running. Multiply by however many you actually run — most patios that feel warm are running more than one.
• National average energy prices: 18.34 cents per kWh and $2.674 a gallon for propane, both sourced and dated.

That propane number is the one worth sitting with. Two hundred and fifty dollars is not a catastrophe, but it is a real annual cost that nobody mentioned at the point of sale, and it is roughly what the heater itself cost.

The obvious read is "buy electric", and for a covered or sheltered space that is correct. But the honest read is more useful than that, because the two appliances are not producing the same amount of heat.

A 48,000 BTU propane tower produces roughly nine times the gross heat of a 1,500 W electric unit. Per unit of heat, propane is actually the cheaper fuel — about 2.9 cents per 1,000 BTU against 5.5 for electricity. The season costs more because you are buying far more heat, not because propane is poor value.

So the seasonal number is not really an argument between fuels. It is an argument for not buying more heat than your space needs, which is the same conclusion the sizing calculator reaches from the other direction. A 48,000 BTU tower on a patio that needs 6,000 is a $253 season buying a $30 outcome.

Quick picks

Ranked for fit, not for hype. Output is the maker’s published figure; reach is computed from it or from the maker’s own radius claim, and the table says which. Tap a row for the full write-up, or go straight to the listing.

#	Product	Best for	Output	Reach	Price
1	Dr Infrared 1500 WRadiant heat that a breeze cannot blow out, on a plug. 1,500 W is only 5,118 BTU/h, which sounds like nothing next to a propane tower and lands far more of itself on you.	Wind, and anywhere with a roof	1,500 W	256 sq ft	$148.98 · Check on Amazon
2	Hiland HLDS01The mushroom tower the whole category is a copy of. 48,000 BTU is enough for a genuinely open patio, and the parts are the easiest in the category to replace when something eventually fails.	A full open patio	48,000 BTU	2,400 sq ft	$315.00 · Check on Amazon
3	Cordless hooded throwThe wearable answer, and the one that finally makes the hooded category recommendable. It is cordless, it has nine heating zones and a hood, and unlike a lap throw it keeps working when you get up to check the grill.	Standing up without losing the heat	n/a	n/a	$49.99 · Check on Amazon-22%

Reach marked “claimed” is the maker’s own published figure. Reach without that label is ours, computed from published output at 20 BTU per square foot for an open patio. Neither is a measurement we took.

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Top pick · Wind, and anywhere with a roof

Dr Infrared Heater DR-238 Carbon Infrared Patio Heater with Kasa Outdoor Smart Plug

Radiant heat that a breeze cannot blow out, on a plug. 1,500 W is only 5,118 BTU/h, which sounds like nothing next to a propane tower and lands far more of itself on you.

Fuel

Electric

Output

1,500 W = 5,118 BTU/h

Reach (computed)

256 sq ft · 9.0 ft radius

Cost per hour

$0.28

Reach is ours, computed from published output at 20 BTU per square foot for an open patio. Cost at 18.34 cents per kWh. We have not measured any of this in person.

What works

• Infrared warms objects, not air, so it is the only heat that survives a breeze — this is the single reason wind changes the whole buying decision
• No combustion means no flue gas, which is what makes it legal and sensible on a screened porch where propane is not
• Three settings matter more than they sound: 900 W costs a third less to run and is enough most evenings

What does not

• 1,500 W is 1,500 W. Nothing at this wattage heats faster than anything else at this wattage; the differences between electric heaters are beam shape and build, not power
• It heats what it points at. Step out of the beam and you are cold immediately — this is a fundamentally different experience from a tower
• A 120 V plug-in unit is capped by your circuit, not by the maker. See why 1,500 W is the ceiling

Published specification
Rated power	1,500 W at 120 V
Settings	900 W / 1,200 W / 1,500 W
Element	Carbon infrared lamp
Reflector	Mirror aluminum, 90% reflectivity per the maker
Housing	Anodized aluminum, rated for outdoor use
Mounting	Wall and ceiling brackets plus remote in the box
Bundle	Currently sold with a Kasa EP40 outdoor smart plug
Maker’s coverage claim	None published — the reach figure above is ours
Safety listing	ETL listed, per the maker's published product data

Who it is for

A covered patio, pergola or screened porch where you can mount it overhead and point it at where people sit, and anywhere wind ruins a flame.

What it is not for

A big open patio with nowhere to mount it. Radiant heat needs a line of sight and a place to hang from.

$148.98 · Check on Amazon

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Sources for this entry

• Amazon listing — Dr Infrared DR-238 carbon infrared heater bundled with a Kasa EP40 outdoor smart plug
• Dr. Infrared Heater — DR-238 published specification

2 · A full open patio

Hiland / AZ Patio Heaters HLDS01-CG 87 in Propane Patio Heater

The mushroom tower the whole category is a copy of. 48,000 BTU is enough for a genuinely open patio, and the parts are the easiest in the category to replace when something eventually fails.

Fuel

Propane

Output

48,000 BTU/h

Reach (computed)

2,400 sq ft · 27.6 ft radius

Cost per hour

$1.40

Reach is ours, computed from published output at 20 BTU per square foot for an open patio. Cost at $2.674 per gallon of propane. A 20 lb cylinder runs it about 9.0 hours at full output. We have not measured any of this in person.

What works

• 48,000 BTU is real output — on our sizing arithmetic that is a 2,400 sq ft open patio at the rule-of-thumb rate, so it is never the unit that is undersized
• Every wear part on this platform is a stocked commodity: thermocouples, control valves, dump switches and reflectors are all available separately
• The weight bladder in the base is the single most useful anti-tip feature in the category and most rivals leave it out

What does not

• An 87 in open-flame tower is the worst possible shape in wind — this is the unit our wind guide exists for
• The maker does not publish a coverage radius, so the reach figure we show is ours, computed rather than quoted
• Full output burns a 20 lb cylinder in well under a night. See the runtime arithmetic

Published specification
Rated input	48,000 BTU/h
Height	87 in
Fuel	20 lb propane cylinder, not included
Reflector	33 in aluminum heat shield
Safety	Anti-tilt cutoff and thermocouple flame-failure cutoff
Extras	Wheels, integrated table, weight bladder for the base
Maker’s coverage claim	None published — the reach figure above is ours
Safety listing	CSA certified per the maker's product literature

Who it is for

An open patio with no roof, where you need volume of heat and can accept swapping cylinders. Also the right answer if you want a unit whose parts you can still buy in five years.

What it is not for

A screened porch, a garage, or anywhere without open sky above it. It is an open-flame combustion appliance and needs genuine outdoor ventilation.

$315.00 · Check on Amazon

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Sources for this entry

• Amazon listing — HLDS01-CG, 48,000 BTU, 87 in, published specification
• AZ Patio Heaters — HLDS01 owner's manual (PDF)

3 · Standing up without losing the heat

Cordless Battery Heated Throw Blanket with Hood, 20,000 mAh

The wearable answer, and the one that finally makes the hooded category recommendable. It is cordless, it has nine heating zones and a hood, and unlike a lap throw it keeps working when you get up to check the grill.

Fuel

Accessory

Output

Not published

Reach (computed)

Not published

Cost per hour

n/a

Reach is ours, computed from published output at 20 BTU per square foot for an open patio. We have not measured any of this in person.

What works

• It is wearable, with a hood. A lap throw stops working the moment you stand up; this does not, which on a patio where people move between the table and the grill is the difference between using it and folding it
• Nine heating zones across a shawl covers shoulders and back — the places a blanket over the legs never reaches
• Cordless and battery powered, so it stays on the right side of the one genuinely unsafe idea in this category
• Roughly half the price of the ActionHeat throws, which makes it the easy second one to own

What does not

• The maker publishes no battery voltage and no run time per setting. That means we cannot compute its cost per hour the way we can for the ActionHeat pack, and you cannot plan an evening around a stated duration. 20,000 mAh is a capacity, not a runtime
• No safety listing is published, which is worth noting on a heated textile even at USB voltages
• A wearable shawl is a different object to a blanket — some people find them warm and some find them faintly ridiculous, and that is not something a spec sheet resolves
• Nine zones is a marketing count as much as an engineering one; more zones across the same battery does not mean more heat

Published specification
Power	20,000 mAh battery pack, USB
Zones	Nine heating zones
Settings	Three heat levels
Form	Wearable shawl with a hood
Battery voltage	Not published
Run time	Not published per setting
Maker’s coverage claim	None published — the reach figure above is ours
Safety listing	No safety listing published by the maker

Who it is for

Anyone who wants heat that follows them around the patio, or who wanted a hooded model and found the category was all unbranded stock.

What it is not for

Anyone who wants a stated run time they can plan around — for that, the [ActionHeat plush](/blog/heated-blankets) publishes its hours at each setting and this does not.

$49.99 · Check on Amazon-22%

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Sources for this entry

• Amazon listing — cordless battery heated wearable throw with hood, 20,000 mAh, nine zones, three levels

1. 1Block the wind. The largest single lever, and the cheapest. An exposed patio can need two to three times the heat of a sheltered one, so a windbreak cuts the season proportionally. The options.
2. 2Heat people, not air. A blanket costs essentially nothing per season and covers the seated case entirely. Pairing one with a smaller heater is the cheapest genuinely warm patio available. The arithmetic.
3. 3Size it properly. Running a large appliance permanently on low is worse value than running a right-sized one at full output. The calculator.
4. 4Turn it down. Output scales with fuel. Most towers have a range and most people run them at maximum out of habit rather than need.

The order matters. Three of those four cost nothing per season, and the one that does — buying the right-sized heater — pays for itself inside a season at these numbers.

Most patios that genuinely feel warm are running more than one unit, so it is worth being explicit that the seasonal figures scale linearly. Two propane towers on the three-evening pattern is not $253, it is roughly $505.

That is the point at which the arithmetic starts arguing for a different approach rather than more of the same one. Two towers at $505 a season buys a lot of enclosure, and enclosure reduces the requirement permanently rather than being consumed every evening.

It is also where the mixed setup wins clearly: a tower for the open section and a mounted electric unit over the seating costs roughly $253 plus $50 rather than $505, and warms people better than two towers because radiant heat lands on bodies rather than air.

One useful frame before deciding the number is too high. A patio used three evenings a week for 20 weeks is 60 evenings of usable outdoor space. At $253 that is about $4 an evening for a propane tower, or 80 cents for the electric setup.

Whether that is good value is genuinely personal, but it is a more honest way to hold the number than an annual total — and it makes the case for the cheap interventions clearly, because getting the same 60 evenings for the price of a windbreak and a couple of blankets is the outcome this site keeps pointing at.

If you use a patio a few evenings a week through the cold months, budget somewhere between $50 and $250 a season per heater depending on fuel, plus whatever your own energy rates do to those figures. That is the number nobody gives you, and it is the one worth knowing before rather than after.