Turn up the heat on winter entertaining
Being with family and friends during the coronavirus was easier last spring and summer, when you were able to feel reasonably safe gathering outdoors. Now, with winter weather here, options for lingering outdoors in most parts of the country have diminished but aren’t gone.
A whole industry is devoted to heating your outdoor space, so you can still enjoy the outdoors. Among the most-affordable options are fire pits and chimineas.
For several hundred dollars, you can create a cozy gathering spot and experience the warm glow of a flame with a portable fire pit. If you’d like a permanent installation, the price quickly climbs: Custom-built masonry wood-burning fire pits start at about $1,500 to $2,000; gas-fueled fire pits cost even more. Prefab outdoor fireplaces start at about $1,600; custom-built models are in the $5,000-to$10,000 range.
A popular choice for outdoor heating — and, in some cases, outdoor cooking — is a chiminea (the name comes from the Spanish word for chimney). A chiminea is typically a wood-burning, free-standing, front-loading fireplace or oven with a bulbous body and a vertical smoke vent or chimney. Chimineas range in price from as low as $80 up to $600 or more.
Although the popularity of chimineas has made them somewhat hard to find in hardware and home furnishing stores, many are available online.
One option is the cast iron chiminea by Kay Home Products, which sells for about $200 on Amazon. If you choose a cast aluminum model, you won’t have to worry about rust. Blue Rooster cast aluminum chimineas are available in a variety of designs for about $600 on Amazon; with some models, you can also fire up a pizza on a small grill.
But chimineas and other wood-burning heat sources create smoke and ash, and they can pose a fire hazard. Infrared heat,
like the kind produced by an electric patio heater, is cleaner and more efficient, and it offers a safer alternative if you live in a fire-prone locale.
“Since infrared heat is transferred directly to a person or object, the warmth created won’t get carried away by the wind, making it the most efficient way to heat an outdoor space,” says Jeremy Kline of Woodland Direct, a large e-commerce company specializing in fireplaces, wood stoves and outdoor living products.
Patio heaters can be free-standing or mounted to, say, a wall or post, and they come in propane, natural gas and electric models. Although gas heaters may not keep you as warm as the best electric models, they are a relatively low-cost, energy-efficient way to heat your outdoor space. Propane is slightly more expensive than natural gas, but it is also slightly
more efficient and cleaner burning.
One highly rated, propane-fueled patio heater is the XtremepowerUS 48,000 BTU Premium Floor Standing Propane Gas Patio Heater (about $170).
Top outdoor electric heaters, such as the 6,000-Watt Infrared Dual-Element Heater by Infratech, run about $800. They produce more concentrated heat than almost any other heating fixture.
Some electric heaters can plug into a standard 120-volt wall socket, but most require higher voltage (and produce a greater amount of heat). For a 6,000-watt heater, for example, you’ll want a 240-volt outlet.