Every time you drag a propane tank to the exchange station, you're paying what we call the Propane Tax. It's not on your receipt. It's buried in refills you didn't see coming, BTUs that disappear into the sky, and a comfort level that never quite delivers on the promise.
Here's what that's actually costing you - and why the math points somewhere else.
The Real Cost of Propane Heat
A standard 20-lb propane tank runs about $25–$30 to fill. Sounds reasonable until you do the hourly math.
A typical propane patio heater burns roughly 1–2 lbs of fuel per hour at full output. That's $2.50–$5 per hour, depending on your local pricing and how hard you're pushing the heat. On a cool night with a group, you're running it hard.
Now do the math on a season. Three nights a week, September through November — roughly 36 sessions — you're burning through $90–$180 in propane alone. That's before the two times you ran out mid-party and had to cut the night short.
Douglas Fir softwood pellets cost roughly $1–$1.50 per hour at the same output, but providing a hotter, denser heat. Less than half the fuel cost, every single burn. Over a season, you're looking at $36–$54 total. The difference doesn't feel dramatic until you've done it for more than one year and realized you've essentially bought a second heater in propane costs alone.
Why You're Still Cold (Even When the Flame Is High)
This explains a frustration a lot of propane heater owners can't quite put into words.
Standard propane heaters warm the air. Infrared radiant heaters warm you.
When a propane heater fires up, it heats the air molecules immediately around it. That warm air rises — which is exactly what warm air does — and disperses into the open sky above your patio. You get a pocket of warmth adjacent to the unit, and cold everywhere else.
Infrared radiant heat works like sunlight. It travels in waves and heats solid objects — people, furniture, the ground — on contact, not by warming the air in between. That's why you can feel the sun on your face on a cold, breezy day. The air temperature is irrelevant. The radiation reaches you directly.
The Patiofyre Jetlamp uses a 4-foot infrared glass heating surface to deliver that same effect in your backyard. Heat moves from head to shin. Not just a warm spot near your shoulder if you stand close enough.
You feel warmer at the same temperature because the heat is landing on your body — not floating away above your head.
The Breakeven Is Faster Than You Think
The Metro Jetlamp retails at $1,099. If you're spending $150-$200/season on propane and the Jetlamp runs ~$50/season in pellets, you're saving $100-$150/year in fuel alone. That's before accounting for fewer frustrating refills, no more empty tank surprises, and a lifetime warranty that propane heaters simply don't come with.
Propane heaters are built to a price point. When yours eventually rusts out, that sunk cost resets. The Jetlamp doesn't.
One More Thing the Numbers Don't Capture
Wood pellets burn at 65% lower carbon emissions than propane. Patiofyre uses compressed Douglas Fir softwood pellets — a byproduct of the timber industry that would otherwise go to waste. It's a closed-loop fuel source. Propane is a fossil fuel. There's no version of that math that goes the other way.
The Bottom Line
Propane heaters are cheap to buy and expensive to run. They heat air that rises and disappears. They run out at inconvenient times. They're made of thin steel. And they don't come with a lifetime guarantee.
If you've been paying the Propane Tax for a few years without thinking about it — this is the thinking about it.
The better heater exists. It's just a different kind of purchase decision: one time, done right, built to last.
The Metro Jetlamp by Patiofyre. Made in Bend, Oregon. Backed for life.