Don’t Roast Your Guests: A Guide to Hanging Infrared Heaters
If you’re putting infrared heaters in your outdoor seating area, remember one thing: you aren’t trying to heat the air. You’re trying to make your guests feel warm. There’s a big difference. If you get the placement wrong, you’ll end up with people who have toasted heads and frozen toes. Not exactly the vibe you’re going for.
Getting the Height Right
Here is the tricky part. If you mount a heater too close to a low ceiling, the heat just gets trapped up there. You end up with a hot pocket of air at the top of the room while your customers are still shivering in their chairs. For most setups, try to keep the units about 2.1 to 2.5 meters off the ground. But what if your ceiling is lower than that? You’ve got two choices. You can tilt the heaters to spread the warmth, or just go with lower-wattage lamps. Either way, you want to avoid that “heat lamp at a buffet” feeling where it’s just too intense.
Turning Cold Patios into Cash
Let’s be honest: a freezing patio is just wasted real estate. When you get the warmth dialed in, that unused space becomes a money-maker all year round. It’s pretty simple. When people are cozy, they stay longer. And when they stay longer, they order another round of drinks or decide to stick around for dessert. We’ve seen it happen time and again. When the temperature feels stable and comfortable, those winter months don’t have to be a slump for your revenue.
The Gritty Details of Installation
Now, a quick heads-up on the power side of things. High-output heaters put out a ton of warmth, but they’re power-hungry. You can’t just plug these into a regular wall outlet and hope for the best. You’ll likely need to upgrade your breakers and use heavy-gauge cabling so you don’t deal with voltage drops. And one last tip: don’t overdo it. If you pump too much heat into a small area, your guests will actually want to leave sooner because they’re overheating. Just look at your patio layout, consider how the wind hits the space, and pick a wattage that balances the two.