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DeLonghi HVE134 Essentials
by helenc72
I moved into a new flat recently and although I do love the flat and the area we have discovered quite a lot of things which need fixing, and one of the main ones is the heating! Luckily we do at least have hot water, but the dial to turn the central heating on is broken. Until it gets fixed, I have been relying on this little fan heater ... from DeLonghi and I am finding it an absolute life saver.
The heater is very small and portable. It is really light and easy to carry around a flat or house and it has a small groove in the back which serves as a carry handle. It has a rounded shape with a flat base, as pictured, so it is freestanding and does not take up much space. This is great, as I can keep it really near to me to get the most out of the heat. For example while writing this and browsing online I have been sitting with this heater on a chair next to me and my feet on the chair. It also fits easily on the little table next to my bed so before getting up in the morning I put it on there to give a quick blast of heat. The heater just plugs into the mains socket and the wire is medium length so you do need to have a socket close by to use it.
As well as the portability, the best thing about this is that it provides a good amount of heat as soon as you turn it on and there is no waiting around. It is a 2400 watt power heater, which seems to be enough for my purposes. It has 2 dials at the top to adjust the heat, and I normally turn it up to 4 (out of 6). This is plenty warm enough an the heat does spread out somewhat into the room, although it doesn't really fill the rooms of our flat as it is just a cold flat by its nature (large, old, old windows) but it does provide good pockets of heat if you are within a metre or so of it! When I first started using it I turned it straight up to 6 but there seems to be some kind of mechanism to cut it out after a few minutes of use on this high setting. I found that quite annoying but when I use it on setting 4 it has never turned itself off and I can have it on the go for a couple of hours at a time.
The only negative that I can think of is that it easily gets dusty due to all the little ridges on the front which gather dust, but it is easy to wipe it down once you have turned it off.
I can't really say how much this costs in electricity to run, as our energy bills are the same each month at the moment based on an estimate but I assume it is costing less to run than if we were using the actual central heating!
The heater is quite cheap to buy. This was my brother's but I have looked into getting another (as my flatmate takes this one nearly every morning and is not that keen to share even though it is more mine than hers lol) and they can be bought for about £20.
I would definitely recommend it. Even if you have central heating that works, this is a great back up if you have any problems and are left with no heat.
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Challenge 2.4kW Upright Oscillating Fan Heater
by Foodiegirly
I bought this little fan heater last year when my central heating was playing up. Money was a bit tight so I rushed out to my local Argos and looked for a cheap model that would double up in the summer as a cool air fan.
I put it in my living room, turned it on to full power and it heated up the room within a couple of ... minutes. I left the door open and within an hour the heat had travelled upstairs and the whole house was warm.
This is a petite heater, only about 32cm tall and 26cm wide so its easy to store when not in use. It has two heat settings and a cool air setting. The fan also has the ability to oscillate. I love this feature because it means the heat gets spread around the whole room quickly. My daughter prefers the still mode because she can direct the heat to wherever she is sitting.
The heater isnt noise free - there is a low whirring sound from the fan but I don't find it intrusive. The cold air feature is great too, cooling the room down relatively quickly. It is easy to use and lightweight to pick up with a built in handle. Finally it has a useful safety cut out feature - if the base is no longer in contact with the ground it turns off, so if it should accidentally get knocked over it wont catch alight.
I cant remember how much I paid for it, but I have just checked the Argos site and they have it for £17.99. Its worth having a one for emergencies or even for giving a blast of warm air while waiting for the central heating to kick in and it's useful in the summer for cooling the place down.
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Big K Smokeless Coal Fire
by January
I have a multifuel burner fitted into my living room and it has double glass fire doors so that you can watch the fire glowing in the evenings, I love it as it's nice to snuggle in when the weathers bad and light the fire and sit and listen to music and have a bottle of wine with friends.
I usually burn wood but when the ... weather gets freezing around mid january early february then I buy coal to mix with the wood from the coal man , so that the fire stays in all night and the house is warm in the mornings.
I sometimes have to buy Big K Smokeless Coal Fire Fuel if I haven't stocked up from the coal man that delivers on our street. This works out a little bit more expensive than buying from the coal man, but when it's cold and frosty you will spend a little extra to get warm.
This costs £5.99 for a bag of 10kg and £10.99 for a bag which is 20kg.
The bag is plastic so can be put into the recycle bin when it's empty.
This is just an emergency fuel for me when I have run out of the loose coal from the coal man delivery, as my burner will eat a full bag of this in a day and night and I can't afford to buy a bag of this a day, so I only buy it when I have run out of the coal supply. It can be bought from some supermarket garages or online.
I use a firelighter and kindling to light the fire and then a few pieces of this coal mixed with a few larger pieces of wood until I have a good bed of glowing ashes in the burner, then I add a little more wood and coal together as it dies down.
This will last me a day and night if I use it like this.
The heat is constant and this warms up the radiators and the hot water in my house as it is connected from the fire.
I love having an fire to burn as there is a constant supply of hot water in winter and I only have to use the immersion heater in summer.
This coal is good for a stop gap when I have run out of coal but I wouldn't buy it everyday.
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