US restaurants are preparing for winter in the pandemic by snatching up outdoor heaters as demand spikesPatio heaters can take the chill off the air temperature thanks to their warm glow coupled with a pleasant warming effect. However they are highly controversial as they mainly run on fossil fuels and, as their heat is largely dissipated, they are an extravagant use of these carbon-rich fuels.
A typical gas-powered patio heater warming your table during a night out for just a couple of hours, might use up a huge 108 MJ and . An equivalent, more efficient electric system would only use one-fifth of that energy, would be cheaper to run, and during the same evening would produce less than a kg of carbon dioxide.which burn cleanly and do not rely on fossil fuels, but this is still a very inefficient use of energy.Unlike other heaters that warm the air around us, infrared heaters work by "shining" infrared radiation directly at its target.
The problem is that infrared heaters only heat whatever is in the path of radiation, like a hot torch. Anything not in the beam, or in a shadow, stays cold. This means that your arms, face, and body may feel comfortable but your legs and feet under the table could still feel chilly. This will be exacerbated the colder we are as blood flow to our extremities is reduced, making our feet colder still.
To feel warmer you need to create the right ambience and reduce draughts that remove the warm layer of air immediately next to the skin. Lighting can help, as it turns out our perception of how cold we are is
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