The average UK patio heater has a consumption of 8.9 Kilowatts. That's quite alot. In fact leaving a patio heater on for one hour uses as much energy as:

1. 89 100 watt lightbulbs.
2. Or 22 42inch plasma screen TVs
3. Or 10 footbath massagers (see website of Yuyao Fuhua Industry Development Co., Ltd)

 

A patio heater turned on for an hour uses enough power to boil a kettle from cold 80 times

And of course, 8.9kW is only the average - there are lots of 15kW patio heaters out there. See the 4 worst patio heaters.

 

Sources of the data. Most of this is sourced from the Market Transformation Programme website www.mtprog.com, the government body providing energy and carbon data for products. See particularly their briefing note, Outdoor Heating for Comfort. It's our view that most of their estimates are very conservative, not least because they assume that the average patio heater uses 8.9kW when more and more patio heaters now use up to 14kW