Patio Heaters: How Do They Work (The Working Principle)

It is undeniable that one of popular options to make people feel comfortable while sitting and standing outside in the chilly weather is patio heaters! And there some different styles of them to choose from, such as; rectangular style (similar to wall heating units that can be mounted on the ceiling or wall of enclosed patio), or the ones with lamp-style that so helpful to encourage the appearance of the patio because this type is similar to beautiful street lamps. Basically the working principle of patio heating units is closely similar to other regular heaters but there are some different principles to look for (depending on the heating design of the unit itself).

So how do patio heaters work? Well, there are three popular types of patio heaters; electric, propane (with pressurized propane cylinder) and natural gas patio heating units in order to accommodate the different requirements. And each type has a slightly different working principle on heating the outside area, especially between propane and natural gas models. If you seriously want to keep the utility bills low, natural gas models are much recommended, especially if your local area is available for natural gas pipeline transmission.

How do propane and natural gas patio heaters work?

The working principle of natural gas and propane units are closely similar! The difference is only on how to supply the gas fuel into the burning components (chamber burner). For propane models, the unit is connected by approved gas regulator to the pressurized propane tank (LPG). And on the other hand for natural gas models, the supply of gas fuel is consistent because the unit is directly connected to the small natural gas pipeline transmission.

The approved regulator is not only important to connect the propane tank to the unit but also important to keep the correct flow of the gas entering the chamber-burner. In the UK, generally most of regulators are designed to fit properly with 28 mbar butane cylinders and 37 mbar propane tanks.

Conventional combustion patio heaters use a pilot light fired, they usually will light first it before operating the primer gas chamber. On the other hand, the newer units have gas valves that are designed to work on a continuous system of pilot. But either conventional units or newer units also use the thermocouple. It has function to get the needed temperature before the gas chamber begins to be fired. So it is closely associated to maintain the heat level and allow the system to turn down the heat or higher.

Below are some important components (and their functions) of combustion patio heaters:

1. Thermocouple, the function has been mentioned before!
2. Electromagnetic valve (it is usually located in the back of valve-control-gas and connected directly to the thermocouple) and has function to transfer a signal to close or open the valve; so thus the performance of the pilot to heat the thermocouple can be maintained as well.
3. Tilt switch (safety feature that usually connected directly to the gas control valve). It will shut off the supply of gas if the heater gets fall or tilt over more than thirty degrees.
4. Reflector, it has a function to reflect the heat towards the ground.

Gas patio heating units are usually designed to heat the objects directly. Therefore they are built in with radiant heating design (closely similar with IR ‘Infrared energy’) for their working principle. So, they produce the same result of the naturally ‘sunlight’ heating effect (without harmful ultraviolet) that heat the objects directly with radiant heating principle.

How do electric patio heaters work?

The working principle of them is also based on the radiant heating principle. Once we turn on the unit, then the transformer is automatically turned on. The transformer has function to control the required electric supply on the electric radiant heating elements. With a certain electric supply, the electric elements will result a certain infrared frequency that eventually will create the radiant heating effect to heat directly any objects surrounding the heater. This means, the system does not heat the air first to heat the objects. These heated-objects (including people, furniture, walls, etc) will create the ambient heat to turn heat the air surrounding the unit. This mechanism is important since most of patio is designed for open-space areas so thus the unit does not need to heat the entire air in the patio to encourage the better efficiency performance.

In addition, there is almost no moving part; therefore electric patio heaters usually will require less care (easier for the maintenance). Typically, the only component that should be concerned with more extra care is the heating elements or perhaps we have to replace them regularly if necessary. And there are some reviews say one of factors to determine the quality of the unit is the frequency replacement of the heating elements!

Image source: Amazon.Com

Read also which one of electric, propane and natural gas patio heating units that can work with the cheapest of the cost of operation!

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