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You don't buy a terrace heater for your guests' comfort — you buy it to sell your terrace for longer. Whether that actually works isn't a feeling, it's arithmetic, and most owners never do the arithmetic.
Every autumn the same question comes up: do we buy heaters for the terrace, or pack the parasols away? The answer most owners give is a bet on comfort — "guests would rather sit somewhere warm" — not a calculation about money. That's why terrace heating so often arrives either too late (the terrace has already sat empty for three weeks) or never gets paid back (the heaters run every night, but nobody has ever counted whether that produces anything).
This article runs that calculation for the three systems you'll actually run into: the freestanding gas heater, the fixed infrared warmer, and the simple heated blanket. Each has a different purchase price, a different running cost and a different coverage area — and therefore a different break-even point in extra covers.
Before you run any numbers, there's one thing that matters more than which system you pick: heating has a ceiling. Below a certain temperature, especially with wind, a terrace sits empty no matter how much you spend on heaters. Anyone who doesn't know where that ceiling sits ends up paying to solve a problem no heater can fix.
And then there's the regulation: a growing number of European cities simply don't allow gas heaters on a terrace any more. Invest now without checking, and you may be buying a system that's illegal in two years.
Terrace heating is a season question, not a comfort question
"Does my terrace need heating" is the wrong question. The right one is: how many more weeks can I sell my terrace if I heat it? A terrace that's already full in September gets nothing from a heater — you were selling those weeks anyway. The money is in the weeks in between: too cold to sit outside without a coat, warm enough to do it anyway once a heater is running.
That makes terrace heating a marginal decision: you're not paying for the whole season, you're paying for the slice of season a heater buys you. Run the numbers against the whole season and every heater looks like it pays for itself. Run them against only the extra weeks, and it's often a much tighter calculation.
And those marginal weeks have their own floor. Past a certain combination of temperature and wind, almost nobody chooses an outdoor table any more, heater or not. That isn't solved by buying a stronger heater — it's the point past which the whole conversation about heating stops making sense.
Heating shifts the point at which guests still sit outside. It doesn't move a mountain.
These bands are indicative — drawn from how terraces actually behave as temperature and wind drop, not a measurement of your own terrace. A sheltered corner out of the wind pushes the floor a few degrees lower; an open, windy terrace pushes it a little higher.
3 systems, side by side
Each system solves a different slice of the problem — none of them is the best choice everywhere. Here's where they actually differ.
1. Freestanding gas heater ("mushroom")
The classic choice: portable, set up in minutes, and warms a wide circle around it fast. No power point needed, so you can place it anywhere — ideal for a terrace whose layout changes every season.
The downside is running cost: a gas bottle is a recurring expense that shows up on every order, and the efficiency is low — most of the heat simply rises past your guests instead of reaching them. It's also exactly the type of heater a growing number of cities are restricting or banning outright.
2. Fixed infrared warmer (electric, ceiling- or wall-mounted)
An infrared panel heats directionally — it radiates warmth straight down onto the tables beneath it rather than warming the whole surrounding air, which makes it more efficient per degree delivered than gas. No bottles to order or swap mid-service, and in most cities no ban conversation to worry about, for now.
The cost sits up front: purchase and installation (an electrician, a power point) cost more than a gas heater you just switch on. In exchange you get a longer working life, and a lower cost per evening once it's up and running.
3. Heated blankets, cushions and upholstery
The cheapest entry point: no installation, no fuel, no permit conversation. A blanket per guest solves the problem person by person instead of square metre by square metre, and works anywhere you'd want to offer warmth at all — including spots a heater physically can't reach.
The limit is just as literal: a blanket doesn't fight wind, and won't keep anyone warm well below freezing. It's the system for the edges of the season, not the depths of winter — and it comes with laundering and upkeep the other two systems don't.
Starting values for an average Western-European terrace in 2026 — swap them for your own supplier's quote.
Coverage is the number of seats one unit comfortably keeps warm on an average cold, still evening — wind reduces that number.
Check this before you buy: the ban is real
A growing number of European cities restrict or ban gas terrace heating, mostly on climate grounds. Paris introduced a ban on gas heaters on café and restaurant terraces in 2022 as part of its climate plan — the best-known and best-documented case, but not the only one. Several Dutch and German cities discourage or restrict them on similar grounds.
That shifts the calculation before you spend a single euro: where gas is still allowed, it remains the cheapest way in on purchase price; where it's restricted, electric infrared stops being "the more expensive option" and simply becomes the only one left.
The rule is often set at municipal or even neighbourhood level, not uniformly by country — so this isn't a list to memorise, it's a phone call to your own municipality before you order. Ask about your terrace permit at the same time: in many places it carries its own conditions on noise, closing time and exactly this kind of heating.
The break-even calculator
The arithmetic is simple once it's written down: what a heater costs you per week, divided by what one extra guest is worth, gives the number of extra covers you need to break even. Everything past that is profit.
Plug in your own numbers — the starting values are typical Western-European ballpark prices, not gospel. Ask your own supplier for a real quote and swap the figures below for theirs.
Work out your own break-even
Pick a system, enter your terrace and your margin — the results update as you type.
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Purchase, running-cost and coverage figures are typical 2026 Western-European ballpark prices, not a quote. Swap in your own supplier's numbers once you have them.
Two numbers in this calculation deserve extra attention: the weeks and the evenings. The longer you actually run a heater, the more weeks its purchase price gets spread across — a heater you only switch on for two weeks has to earn back its whole annual cost in those two weeks alone.
And the real unknown in this sum is you, not the heater: how many guests genuinely choose a heated terrace over sitting inside, or not coming at all? Track it for one season — how much fuller the terrace is on a heated evening than on a comparably cold evening without one — and you have the one number this calculator can't guess for you.
Your terrace-heating action plan
Turn this into three moments: before you buy, during the season, and the moment you're willing to stop.
Before you buy
- Call your municipality about a gas-heater ban or restriction, and about your terrace permit's own conditions.
- Get a real quote from two suppliers instead of running the calculator on the ballpark figures above.
- Work out your coverage against your actual terrace size — too few units is money spent on half a solution.
During the season
- Track which evenings you heat and how many guests showed up, against a comparable cold evening without the heater.
- Only switch the heater on once temperature is genuinely in the middle zone — heating an evening that would fill up anyway is pure cost.
- Watch for wind exposure: a heater fighting the wind loses most of its effect.
If the numbers don't work
- Scale back to fewer evenings a week rather than dropping the heater entirely.
- Consider blankets as a top-up for the edges of the season instead of buying a second expensive heater.
- Close the terrace a few weeks earlier rather than keep spending on evenings below the floor from the first chart.
Conclusion: run the numbers before you buy
Terrace heating isn't a comfort decision, it's a season decision with a hard floor: below a certain temperature and wind, no heater helps, and above a certain temperature you don't need one. The money sits in the narrow zone in between.
None of the three systems is simply "the best" — gas wins on flexibility and entry price for as long as it's still allowed, infrared wins on running cost and lifespan, and a blanket wins on simplicity at the edges of the season. The right pick depends on your own terrace, your own municipality and your own arithmetic.
That arithmetic isn't complicated — it's just rarely done. Enter your own numbers in the calculator above, track the extra guests on a heated evening for one season, and you'll know for certain whether terrace heating is making you money or just burning it.