Awnings and outdoor heaters

sillysocks

We have a small courtyard in our house after building an extension. It's about 3m x 6m.
We'd love to make a little seating area with an awning and heater so we can use it even outside of the 2 days of summer sunshine we usually get. We don't need the awning to fully cover the whole area but just enough of it to have maybe two seats.

Have no idea about either heaters or awnings and wondering if anyone has any advice. We'd prefer a wall mounted heater, and the awning doesn't have to be automatic or anything too fancy. Is a heater and awning together a fire risk, or guessing they can be made to use together?

Any advice would be appreciated!

M.T.D

The logic behind patio heaters seems odd to me.
We insulate and draught proof our houses to get a warm home that is cheaper to heat and does less damage to the environment.
Then we put a gas burner on the patio so we can sit outside without a coat?

Ubbquittious

M.T.D wrote: »

The logic behind patio heaters seems odd to me.
We insulate and draught proof our houses to get a warm home that is cheaper to heat and does less damage to the environment.
Then we put a gas burner on the patio so we can sit outside without a coat?

Tiger's back, lad

Though the ideal job would be a plastic jacuzzi so you can sit outside without anything

sillysocks

Thanks for the helpful replies .... that's me told anyway :rolleyes:

vicwatson

How about something like this for the "awning"?

https://www.primrose.co.uk/sail-shades-c-85.html

antiskeptic

sillysocks wrote: »

We have a small courtyard in our house after building an extension. It's about 3m x 6m.
We'd love to make a little seating area with an awning and heater so we can use it even outside of the 2 days of summer sunshine we usually get. We don't need the awning to fully cover the whole area but just enough of it to have maybe two seats.

Have no idea about either heaters or awnings and wondering if anyone has any advice. We'd prefer a wall mounted heater, and the awning doesn't have to be automatic or anything too fancy. Is a heater and awning together a fire risk, or guessing they can be made to use together?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Judging by the scorch marks and holes on the awning outside the Harbour Bar in Bray, patio heaters and awnings close overhead do not go together. They've installed some other kind of gas fired heater which doesn't glow red and puts out a more invisible wavelength kind of radiant heat.

I'd a mate with an awning which covered the width, but not quite the depth of his patio. No patio heater. There was a very noticeable increase in temp under the awning (i.e. when he rolled it back at the end of the night, it became much chillier) so consider a couple of awnings to bridge the width of your house (if that's the 6m dimension)

There are other kinds of heaters: infra red, for example. Or position a gas heater outside the awning so that you get the radiant heat but the rising hot air can escape. Or use a normal patio heater turned down low enough / positioned low enough not to scorch the awning.

ted1

M.T.D wrote: »

The logic behind patio heaters seems odd to me.
We insulate and draught proof our houses to get a warm home that is cheaper to heat and does less damage to the environment.
Then we put a gas burner on the patio so we can sit outside without a coat?

Electric wall mounted heaters are great. No need for gas, also if there's smokers in the group of if you cooking outdoors etc it makes more sense to be out

sillysocks

Thanks all for the replies. The sail shades look great but thinking more of something wall mounted so it doesn't have any supports on the patio. We have kids who often use that area to kick a ball or just to play and would prefer something that won't get in their way. Would also prefer a wall mounted heater.
I will definitely look into the fire risk thing. It's quite a sheltered space and would be lovely to be able to use it a little bit more. We were at a hotel with the wall mounted heaters lately and that got us thinking.