The quiet hiss click of someone turning a dial down instead of up is a telltale sign that a beer garden is in peril. When you pass a bar on a chilly Tuesday in January, you’ll see that the heaters are either not glowing at all or glowing at half strength, despite the fact that the tables beneath them are crowded with people wearing coats. No one speaks. The computation has obviously altered.
For many years, the patio heater was considered a fixed expense of conducting business, much like purchasing glasses or paying for a till roll. Following the 2007 smoking ban, which forced patrons outside, and during the pandemic, when outdoor service was frequently the only permitted alternative, pubs installed them in large quantities. It’s simple to forget how recent all of this is. The gas heater, shaped like a mushroom and burning orange above a group of smokers, became so commonplace in British street life that it was hardly considered an option anymore. Like the beer mats, it was simply there.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Topic | Beer garden heaters and UK pub winter heating costs |
| Common types | Gas (mushroom-style), electric infrared, fire pits, heated benches |
| Typical gas heater running cost | Approx. £2.90–£3.40 per hour |
| Typical electric heater running cost | Approx. 34p–68p per hour |
| Pub closures (England & Wales, 12 months to Dec 2025) | 366 pubs |
| Average increase in business energy bills (2022–23 crisis) | Up to 150–300% above pre-pandemic levels |
Now, that presumption is being put to the test and not in a kind way. A tavern with six or eight gas patio heaters lighting on a busy winter evening may have to pay between £70 and £130 each night just to keep the area tolerable. A gas patio heater operating at full capacity uses about £3 per hour in fuel. When you multiply it across a six month season, the figure no longer appears to be an energy bill rounding error. It begins to resemble rent.
In late 2023, Hydes Bar Norton in Stockton on Tees made headlines for doing something quite unimaginable: using token meters attached to the wall to charge patrons a pound for each thirty minutes of heater use. The blowback was less severe than you might anticipate. While some regulars complained, others shrugged and said, “Fair enough, put on another jumper.” That moment, when free outdoor warmth ceased to be taken for granted and began to be charged, is difficult not to interpret as a sort of cultural turning point.
The number of distinct stresses that are coming together on this one piece of equipment is remarkable. The obvious one is energy prices, which increased during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have never quite returned to their pre invasion levels. Pubs are vulnerable to market fluctuations in a manner that most of their patrons are not because business energy users are not shielded by the household pricing cap. The environmental case, on the other hand, has solidified from a specialized grievance to one that is more in line with consensus. An ordinary patio heater uses about the same amount of energy as a gas stove operating for six months, according to research done years ago by the Energy Saving Trust. And that’s before anyone brings up the nitrogen oxides that drift around a populated garden.
France didn’t hold out. The ecology minister at the time dismissed the practice as an ecological anomaly and outright banned heated outdoor terraces in March 2022. It’s really questionable if Britain will follow. A petition advocating for a ban on gas patio heaters garnered a total of fourteen signatures, hardly a groundswell, and there is currently no law making its way through Parliament. The councils of Westminster and Newcastle have already limited gas heaters to electric only, and even in the absence of national law compelling the matter, this patchwork of local regulations indicates the direction of travel.
Beneath all of this is a pub sector that is simply unable to absorb additional expenses. In the year ending in December 2025, about one pub per day was lost in England and Wales; in 2026, the rate appears to be increasing rather than decreasing. The minimum wage has increased once more, business rates relief has been reduced, and National Insurance reforms have been implemented. The industry’s profit margins are typically around 7%, which leaves little room for a heating cost that can reach the thousands over the course of a season.
Within this pressure, the electric versus gas issue has turned into a real flashpoint. Electric infrared heaters don’t emit the same combustion fumes and are far less expensive to operate roughly 34p per hour compared to £3 for gas. They need electrical infrastructure, which is expensive to construct and frequently absent from older bar buildings. Investing in wiring that will benefit the landlord after the lease expires is risky for a renter who does not own the building.
All of this has a more subdued, personal cost. Operators characterize the decision as truly stressful it’s not theoretical or abstract, but rather the kind of thing that keeps someone up at night wondering if they priced it incorrectly. The lack of foot traffic this past summer was like trading through the midst of winter, according to Mark Bentham, who owns a micropub in Lancashire. Winter heating begins to appear less like an investment and more like a wager that no one can afford to lose if summer trade is already thin.
The beer garden heater might survive this moment in a different form that is smarter, more focused, and activated by motion sensors instead of being left running all night for no one in particular. That type of device is already being offered by Heat Outdoors and other similar vendors. A return to the previous assumption that heaters were just turned on without anyone completing the arithmetic first seems less conceivable. At least that seems to be the end of that era.
i) https://essmag.co.uk/outdoor-heaters-mean-pubs-with-beer-gardens-could-see-energy-bills-soar/
ii) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/county-durham-pub-cost-of-living-crisis-b2449736.html
iii) https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2023/11/uk-pub-installs-token-meters-to-make-patrons-pay-for-outdoor-heaters/
iv) https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/pub-charges-drinkers-1-per-half-hour-to-use-outdoor-heaters/
v) https://evergreenpro.co.uk/commercial-outdoor-heaters/