These heaters sound amazing!...BUT here are the facts...
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Headlines
These room heaters are currently being marketed incredibly heavily on the internet across dozens of websites, and under all sorts of brand names.
They are marketed in a way that makes them sound AMAZING. The reality is they are just small fan heaters with a small output and are no more efficient than any other electric heater.
This article shows the enticing way these products are being marketed followed by the facts about what they are and what they do, and why I believe the product claims should be treated with great caution.
Some of these being sold on the market are not guaranteed to meet safety standards. I have tested one and it did not have of the mandatory safety information it should have clearly labelled on it.
The product marketing messages
These heaters pop up everywhere online with paid for marketing and sponsored ads. I have also seen commentary online that they use fake reviews. I would not be surprised if they do but cannot prove it.
As you can see in this advert, marketing messaging is creating the impression that it is popular, in demand, 'top rated', so get it quick while it is on offer.
This suggests it must be 'good'....surely?
They are marketed with incredibly bold and eye-catching CLAIMS of how quickly they will warm a room up and how much energy they will save.
There are also several promotional videos online, including the one immediately below, claiming that this product contains revolutionary technology that:
CLAIM 1 - slashes the energy consumed by the product by 97.8% compared to other regular heating systems without specifying what these are.
CLAIM 2 - rooms are heated from 14C to 24C in 2 minutes.
CLAIM 3 - that this works for rooms up to 700 square ft in size.
CLAIM 4 - it costs just pence per day to run.
CLAIM 5 - it is 100% efficient.
But there is something fishy about them.
The video tells the heart-warming tale of a young inventor on an amazing crusade to develop and manufacture this product.
BUT....one of the OTHER promotional videos tells of a DIFFERENT heart-warming story of a completely DIFFERENT (and older) inventor on his own DIFFERENT amazing crusade to develop the same product.
Having at least two videos telling completely different stories makes me question the honesty of whoever is making and marketing this product.
Fishy!
All claims in these videos and on their websites have been chosen very carefully to present information in an incredibly seductive way.
The reality and facts about this product
These are JUST SMALL ELECTRIC FAN heaters with a low output
They provide 500 Watts of heat compared to the minimum normally for a fan heater of 1000 Watts. I borrowed one recently and found it actually only generated 350 Watts of heat, not even 500! 350 is LESS THAN HALF the heat that a low power travel hair dryer can produce.
The video above talks about how this heater 'recycles' air from the room to maximise energy efficiency to 100%. All fan heaters do this.
They are no more efficient than anything already on the market as ALL electric room heaters are 100% efficient - see my other article here for an explanation.
It will cost around 14 pence per hour when running (assuming the October 2023 27p/kWh tariff).
If you want a small fan heater that you can put under your desk at home, or something that will take the edge of cold off a room, then I'm sure these will work fine. I HAVE seen genuine positive statements by Facebook users who have them.
BUT rather than FLOOD a room with heat as the video advertising implies it will be more of a gentle waft!
These facts do not match up to the impression the marketing gives. i.e. the marketing is nonsense and in my opinion an unfair way of marketing this to consumers.
One clear disadvantage of this product: if you do get one, bear in mind they are entirely self-contained and designed to plug directly into a wall socket as you can see in the image above.
This means if the wall socket isn't near where you want the heat to (i.e. by you) then you won't easily feel the heat from it and you will need to run longer to get YOU to the temperature YOU want to be at.
A potential safety issue: I haven't seen the instruction manual for it but imagine it will say in strong terms that they shouldn't be used on extension leads of any sort as if they are covered or get knocked over they present a very real fire hazard. They are meant to be used on a vertical wall socket.
It fits the 'if it sounds too good to be true it can't be true' proverb.
The nerdy area
For those interested - unpicking the product claims
Claim 1
'slashes the energy consumed by the product by 97.8% compared to other regular heating systems'
UNPICKING THIS: It does this without specifying what these 'regular heating systems are'.
It is a SMALL fan heater, so you could argue that compared for example to a 22kW gas boiler heating a whole house on full heat to warm a whole home really quickly it uses 98% less energy.
SO, technically you COULD argue their claim is correct using this very specific comparison which is not comparing apples with apples.
Claim 2
'that rooms are heated from 14C to 24C in 2 minutes'.
UNPICKING THIS: This is a small heater. SO, for this to be true means a TINY well insulated room, OR it means that they made these measurements very close to the heater itself.
Claim 3
'that this works for rooms up to 700 square ft in size'
UNPICKING THIS: 700 square feet is a HUGE room, almost the size of the average UK two-bedroom flat. Any heater will work in ANY sized room of course, but a big room with a tiny heater certainly won't see its temperature rise quickly. You could argue a candle would work in helping heat a room that size.
Claim 4
'it costs just pence per day to run'
UNPICKING THIS: Just one hour running will cost 17p. You COULD argue that this claim is valid by saying 'yes it does cost lots of pence per day.......lots and LOTS of pence'.
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Thanks.
Mark Thompson
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