Thursday 3 February 2011

Gas Patio Heaters - Hot Advantages and Creepy Disadvantages

Gas patio heaters are popular with homeowners who want to be able to use patios or decks for outdoor living rooms for more than just a few weeks each year. Patios are increasingly used for entertaining and outdoor kitchens. If you want to be comfortable while sharing food and conversation with your guests during the spring and fall months, adding a gas heater for your patios can make the space temperature neutral so that guests don't realize that further away from your home, the temperature has dropped along with the darkness.


Spending time outdoors in the spring of each year is made easier with a patio that is heated a little. The mornings can still be chilly, but if you have spring flowers in bloom, a cup of coffee, a newspaper and a few minutes enjoying the outdoors can be possible with a patio that is warmed just right.


A living room that seems a little small when closed off from the outdoors can seem quite spacious when opened up to an outdoor room. The patio space that is warm and inviting adds the look of space to your indoor entertaining location. Gracious living indoors and out is the result of well-planned patios.


Compared to wood patio heaters, gas units have some real advantages. Gas doesn't smoke so you don't get smoke in your eyes or the smell of smoke in your hair and clothing. Wood heaters can get you all choked up, in spite of the nice atmosphere of wood flames. With a wood heater, you have to be concerned about burning sparks blowing into combustible materials. Cleaning ashes from a wood burning unit can be a dirty and tedious chore.


If you have been using an electric heater or a wood heater, you will find that gas units are much quicker to use. With wood, you must find paper, kindling and a lighter and hope the fire starts properly on the first try. With gas heaters, you just turn it on and the area will soon benefit from the warmth.


When you heat with wood, you must find a wood source and you must also find a place to store the wood where there is easy access to the heater. Wood can be bulky, taking up room on your patio. It also tends to attract insects to your patio. If you've ever removed slivers from your fingers after handling a piece of wood, you'll appreciate the clean gas fuel for your heater. Propane tanks are cleaner than wood, but they are heavy and awkward to handle. Running out of fuel in the middle of a party on your patio is irksome at best.


With a gas unit, you will have to have the gas line professionally installed in most instances. If you allow for several connections around your patio, you have the advantage of portability for the heater. You can just move the heater to where it is most needed and attach it to the closest gas connection.


A gas patio heater is attractive as well as useful. The units are small so they don't require a lot of space in order to perform their function of adding comfort. Their size and convenience makes them useful for all types of outdoor living spaces.


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