tom wrote:
I saw a tv program the other week "City Gardener" where he used
some
small electric heaters that looked like floodlight's. Just found
out
its an algarve 2 1.3kw electric heater costing about £140.

I know jumpers are an option but its just nice once it gets dark,
after eating outside to have some form of heat rather than all 5 of
us
having to go & get jumpers.

The one thing i cant find out is how wide the path of heat is.

p.s Its about 3m deep, the heat that is.

Excuse for a pub-crawl. I don't know where you live, but there may be
enough pubs using them near you for it to be feasible to try out a
few.

I'd say the spot would need to be very sheltered for the heater to
make a difference. The mad Irishman installed one in a
specially-constructed very smart paved hole in the ground, and I
thought at the time it might have had a fair chance of working.

I do think they're a bit of a fad, though: we wouldn't usually put
the central heating rads on the ceiling. Perhaps a small electric
blanket on a bench-seat, or one of those electric heat pads for each
chair, would make more sense. (I assume they're safe, especially with
a circuit-breaker; but I'm no electrician.)

--
Mike.