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What are the Running Costs of a Gas Fire Pit?
The average cost of running a 40,000 Btu gas fire pit on full power will cost approximately £2.80 per hour, based on a refilled 13 Kg bottle of gas costing £42. A new bottle of gas will cost £82. Running the fire on low or medium heat will extend the burn time. In this article, we look at how to work out how much it costs to use a gas fire pit and the factors that will affect the running costs of gas fire pits in the garden.
You can use all the information and tables below to find out the running costs of any bottled gas appliance, for example, BBQs, gas patio heaters, fire tables, pits or bowls. You can then search for the cheapest gas in your area.
As with most things in life, the cost of buying a product is one thing but the cost of running that product is most definitely another! If you are thinking of buying a gas fire pit, bowl or fire table, you will probably be doing some serious research. Before you part with your hard-earned cash, you will want to know roughly how much gas the fire pit is going to use and therefore, how much the fire pit is going to cost to run.
What Factors Affect the Running Costs?
There are a number of factors that will affect the cost of running a gas fire pit in the garden:
- The heat output rating of the fire pit or fire bowl.
- The price you pay for gas.
- Using low, medium or high gas settings.
- The environment, a still hot night will be cheaper than a windy cold evening.
How much Gas will a Fire Pit use?
All gas fire pits will have a heat output rating which will be stated in Btu (British Thermal Unit) or kilowatts (kW) and sometimes, but rarely in the UK, Megajoules (MJ). If you would prefer a certain unit of measurement. All the measurements are easily converted using an online converter.
How is Gas Weighed in a Bottle?
The weight on the side of a gas bottle is the weight of the gas inside the bottle and NOT the weight of the bottle OR the weight of the gas plus the bottle!
This means you will see large figures on the side of the gas bottle like 3 kg or 7 kg or for large bottles 15 kg. Use the table below to give you an idea of how much gas a gas bottle will hold.
The calculation is very simple:
In the UK, gas is measured by weight (kilograms – kg) and in 1 kg of gas, there are 47770 Btus of heat energy.
1 kg of gas = 47,770 Btu.
So, if you have 3 kg of gas in a bottle you will have 143,310 Btu of heat energy.
3 x 47,770 = 143,310 Btu.
How much Gas will a Fire Pit use?
By using the Btu rating for the fire, which will be stated in the fire statistics, it is now easy to work out how much gas your fire pit will use on full power. For example:
A 40,000 Btu fire pit fitted to a 5 kg gas bottle will burn on full power for approximately 6 hours.
| Gas Bottle size in kg | Btu | kW | MJ | Burning Hours for 40,000 Btu/hr Fire Pit |
| 1 | 47,770 | 14 | 50 | 1 hour |
| 3 | 143,310 | 42 | 151 | 3 hrs 30 mins |
| 5 | 238,850 | 70 | 252 | 6 hours |
| 7 | 334,390 | 98 | 352 | 8 hours |
| 13 | 621,010 | 182 | 655 | 15 hrs 30 mins |
| 15 | 716,550 | 210 | 756 | 18 hours |
How much heat energy per kilogram of gas
| Gas Bottle size in kg | Btu |
| 1 | 47,770 |
| 3 | 143,310 |
| 5 | 238,850 |
| 7 | 334,390 |
| 13 | 621,010 |
| 15 | 716,550 |
A Btu (British Thermal Unit) is equal to the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1lb of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.
