Random musings and general banter.

[Paul B]

I rarely tune into IW these days but caught a glimpse of the old lady on the treadmill contraption.

She's done some bloody miles since her first appearance!

 

[Deleted member 21838]

Unfortunately they were static ones.

 

[Paul B]

Is Foghorn Jacks still with the channel?

Thankfully on the few occasions I've dropped by there were other IW 'personalities' in the presenting chair. She seemed to be on all the time at one point.

 

[cheeky chappie]

Remember to tune in at 8pm, it's temperature gun time, with the price of electricity going through the roof, now is the ideal time to get your ceramic heater. Why heat your whole house with your central heating, when you can turn it off and spend more just to heat the room you're in. No doubt Ideal World have been given a long range weather forecast, pretty sure we're going to be in for the worst winter in decades.

I caught some of this last night, well about 38 secs to be exact. I can no longer watch the radiator shows as they make me slightly annoyed

The bit I did catch, Mike M was standing there saying along the lines of 'especially during these times, imagine being able to turn your central heating down or perhaps off altogether and running one of these ...'

He was being serious!!

This is what I genuinely don't get. Ok some folk still have less efficient older heating systems, but many folk now have gas boilers that are quite/very efficient or electric radiators that are also much more efficient than older systems. And as we've said before, these systems usually have thermostats on each radiator to control heat room to room.

But as you say, they are seriously suggesting folk turn this system off and run 1, 2 or maybe 3 of these?!? How the feck is that going to save folk £££??? All joking aside, their underhandness to get sales knows no bounds, no shame. And of course, as is usually the case, they're talking complete garbage.

Something selly telly can never escape when folk are needing to draw in the purse-strings, is that they are trying to get folk to do the complete opposite and spend £££ on tat they invariably don't need and very possibly can't afford.

 

[Hammy60]

Is Foghorn Jacks still with the channel?

Thankfully on the few occasions I've dropped by there were other IW 'personalities' in the presenting chair. She seemed to be on all the time at one point.

Yeah Foghorn still there, mainly seems to be Mon - Thur, but her time is now taken up with entertaining her millions of fans on social media and as a highly sought after speaker on the Medical conference circuit, big hit seemingly, where she's been passing on her vast medical experience/knowledge and tips too millions and millions of medical professionals at medical conferences worldwide.

 

[Hammy60]

I caught some of this last night, well about 38 secs to be exact. I can no longer watch the radiator shows as they make me slightly annoyed

The bit I did catch, Mike M was standing there saying along the lines of 'especially during these times, imagine being able to turn your central heating down or perhaps off altogether and running one of these ...'

He was being serious!!

This is what I genuinely don't get. Ok some folk still have less efficient older heating systems, but many folk now have gas boilers that are quite/very efficient or electric radiators that are also much more efficient than older systems. And as we've said before, these systems usually have thermostats on each radiator to control heat room to room.

But as you say, they are seriously suggesting folk turn this system off and run 1, 2 or maybe 3 of these?!? How the feck is that going to save folk £££??? All joking aside, their underhandness to get sales knows no bounds, no shame. And of course, as is usually the case, they're talking complete garbage.

Something selly telly can never escape when folk are needing to draw in the purse-strings, is that they are trying to get folk to do the complete opposite and spend £££ on tat they invariably don't need and very possibly can't afford.

Yeah i just watch the start as well, know the show off by heart now.

The show is full of misleading and potentially dangerous sales patter and a highly misleading "defies logic" demo, it's just a con job. And at no time do they ever mention running costs of these radiators, they're very quick to show running costs when flogging fans to show how cheap they are to run, but not these radiators. Folks would think twice if they saw how expensive they are to run in comparison to an existing gas central heating. Ok if you're in a house with no heating or a new build, then initial cost of gas central heating is high, but in existing homes with gas central heating, no way would you be using these as an alternative to save money, it'll cost you more.

While ceramic heaters have some pros, running costs is not one of them. Running just one of those 2 kW heaters would cost me almost as much to run for 6 hours a day during just the months of November - March £539, than my gas bill is for the whole year which includes heating the whole house during those winter months/and a gas hob through the year as well. I'm approx £600 for gas a year (that's under contract prices which will be higher soon, new contract time ). Now that example is just 6 hours a day for one radiator, as against all 5 radiators that were running a lot more than 6 hours a day in the coldest months.

 

[cheeky chappie]

While ceramic heaters have some pros, running costs is not one of them. Running just one of those 2 kW heaters would cost me almost as much to run for 6 hours a day during just the months of November - March £539, than my gas bill is for the whole year which includes heating the whole house during those winter months/and a gas hob through the year as well. I'm approx £600 for gas a year (that's under contract prices which will be higher soon, new contract time ). Now that example is just 6 hours a day for one radiator, as against all 5 radiators that were running a lot more than 6 hours a day in the coldest months.

Yeah but come on, you have to admit, just think how much more convenient it would be for you to have a single heating source (rest of the house FREEZING) and to wheel it around with you room to room. Just think how EASY, HASSLE FREE and CONVENIENT that would be for you!

Then think of older possible more infirm people. Think how EASY, HASSLE FREE and CONVENIENT it would be for them to wheel a hot radiator around or take it up and down stairs if they can only afford to buy one.

Charlatans the lot of 'em.

 

[cheeky chappie]

Mary: I'm just going through to the spare room to write my Christmas cards love.
Bob: Yeah ok darling, here, take the radiator with you.
Mary: Thanks love.
(Mary wheels the radiator through to the spare room. She shouts through to Bob ...)
Mary: BRrrrrr, this spare room is FREEZING Bob. Never mind, it'll heat up over the next 15-20 minutes.
(15 minutes later, Bob shouts through to Mary ...)
Bob: Mary darling, you about finished doing those cards?
Mary: Not really, why?
Bob: Cause I'm freezing my nuts off through here darling!!!

 

[cheeky chappie]

When is a solution not a solution?

When it's an IW solution

 

[Hammy60]

That's the other thing that is misleading in their demo, while that radiator may heat up 5/10 minutes quicker than a water filled radiator, it doesn't instantly heat the room as Peter V seems to imply, it'll still take time to heat up the whole room same as a normal radiator.
If you're wanting instant heat at approx same cost as a ceramic heater, then you're better off buying a 2 kw convector/fan heater for £50.

 

[Hammy60]

Considering they keep saying they don't like/want to mention the 'C' word they sure as heck say it a helluva lot.

 

[Deleted member 21838]

I can laugh at most of their sales antics. But I draw the humour line when it comes to the approach to hearing related sales. Emotional blackmail selling tactics, general misinformation and no like for like comparisons. I am always looking for Matt Allwrong to crash one of those imagine granny as a starving block of ice, pass the sick bucket type radiator shows.

 

[Hammy60]

That Shona is also becoming a big pain in the butt to listen too, liked her to begin with, but now she’s in a constant over the top theatrical mode, squealing out her faux astonishment, excitement and sheer disbelief at the quality and prices of IW fashion/products. Absolutely <cue high pitch squeal> stunnninnng.

 

[cheeky chappie]

That Shona is also becoming a big pain in the butt to listen too, liked her to begin with, but now she’s in a constant over the top theatrical mode, squealing out her faux astonishment, excitement and sheer disbelief at the quality and prices of IW fashion/products. Absolutely <cue high pitch squeal> stunnninnng.

Yeah, everything's amazing, awesome, superb, excellent ... even though 9/10 they're selling very ordinary stuff that can be bought from numerous outlets. On that level, selly telly presenters certainly do what they're paid to, hype everything up as if it's the best product since sliced bread.

 

[Hammy60]

I'm starting to see a distinct connection with IW and Mike Ashley/House of Fraser group companies. Lot of their brands appearing nowadays, of course a bit like Solar Time with the watch brands, no mention whom a lot of these brands belong to and that a lot of stuff is made by poorly paid folks in distant lands.

 

[JeepSwensonfan]

Welcome to us Newcastle United fans world.

 

[Hammy60]

Ok so wee experiment to see if Peter V claims are valid, ie central heating takes ages to start heating up and ceramic temps keep rising, defying logic, after switching off inferring switching anything else off temps would fall.

My central heating this morning (all temps in centigrade).

0 mins – 22.2

5 mins – 30

Switched off

6 mins – 36.8

Ok so my central heating is starting to warm up radiators (all of them) in minutes and after 5 mins switched off and low and behold a minute later it defied logic and had risen another 6.8 degrees. BTW like Peter’s demo and my quick experiment didn’t defy logic, like his demo, switching off during the heating up stage will always result in higher temps for a short period after switching off, if both of us had waited a short while longer till both radiators had reach the temp they were set at then there would be no increase after switching off, sod all to do with logic just simple physics.

Of course they often mention it takes 30 minutes or so for central heating to heat your room up which is true, while at the same time inferring that with ceramic heaters heating quicker (matter of minutes) you’ll have instant heat across your room, but unless there is a fan inside a ceramic heater then it’ll be the same for ceramic heaters as well, no matter how quick the radiator itself heats up itself without a fan, it will take time to heat the rest of the room same as central heating.

 

[cheeky chappie]

Ok so wee experiment to see if Peter V claims are valid, ie central heating takes ages to start heating up and ceramic temps keep rising, defying logic, after switching off inferring switching anything else off temps would fall.

My central heating this morning (all temps in centigrade).

0 mins – 22.2

5 mins – 30

Switched off

6 mins – 36.8

Ok so my central heating is starting to warm up radiators (all of them) in minutes and after 5 mins switched off and low and behold a minute later it defied logic and had risen another 6.8 degrees. BTW like Peter’s demo and my quick experiment didn’t defy logic, like his demo, switching off during the heating up stage will always result in higher temps for a short period after switching off, if both of us had waited a short while longer till both radiators had reach the temp they were set at then there would be no increase after switching off, sod all to do with logic just simple physics.

Of course they often mention it takes 30 minutes or so for central heating to heat your room up which is true, while at the same time inferring that with ceramic heaters heating quicker (matter of minutes) you’ll have instant heat across your room, but unless there is a fan inside a ceramic heater then it’ll be the same for ceramic heaters as well, no matter how quick the radiator itself heats up itself without a fan, it will take time to heat the rest of the room same as central heating.

Great mini report

Let me be clear, the following figures have not been cross-referenced for complete accuracy, they represent a quick grab off the internet! However they make for interesting reading. They are based on 2022 electricity and gas costs at the time of publishing.

2000W electric heater: 68p an hour to run.
24kw gas central heating system: £1.12 an hour to run.

Now if these figures are even close to accurate, at first a consumer might think 'oh, the electric heater is almost half the cost to run!' And based purely on the figures, that would be right. However, people need to stop and think for a second. First, there's the cost of buying the electric heater to factor in. Then, people need to remember the electric heater is not heating the entire home, it's heating a single room/space.

So we're back to the convenience thing of running a system that can simultaneously heat the entire home (with variable temp control per room i.e. radiator thermostats) vs a system that is perhaps cheaper to run per hour, but only heats a single space and needs wheeled from room to room.

Then here's the biggy. If you buy two of the electric heaters e.g. one for downstairs one for upstairs, the hourly running cost is roughly the same if not slightly more than running the existing central heating system! Plus the initial purchase cost of the electric heaters, this needs factored in.

I'm not making light of people who are struggling financially. If for some it makes financial sense to buy a single heater and turn their central heating off, who are any of us to judge. However when you factor everything in, I reckon that has to be a minority of the public. Even then, they'd probably be better running the existing central heating something like two hours on one hour off to save money, at least then they're heating the entire home or multiple rooms as required.

Their assertions for reasons to buy are very very weak, as is usual for IW.

 

[Hammy60]

Hayley doing the "we all want to be healthy" routine again, and John with his how nature intended veggie and fruit crap, flogging the nutibullit. Obviously different script to when they're flogging BBQs & ovens where those unheathly carnivore foods like burgers, steaks, pork joints, beef joints etc are the recommended healthy diet.

Pretty sure nature didn't factor in the nutribullit when it was deciding on what plants & life would inhabit the earth.

Hayley telling us how bad we are for eating veg and fruit in this country, we should be like China where they really do eat their veg and fruit.

Ok Hayley, so we'll all become as healthy as the Chinese and watch our life expectancy levels drop from our 81.77 to China's 77.47, got ya.

Me, was born a carnivore, lived as a carnivore and will die happily a carnivore, to hell with eating hamster food.

 

[Hammy60]

Great mini report

Let me be clear, the following figures have not been cross-referenced for complete accuracy, they represent a quick grab off the internet! However they make for interesting reading. They are based on 2022 electricity and gas costs at the time of publishing.

2000W electric heater: 68p an hour to run.
24kw gas central heating system: £1.12 an hour to run.

Now if these figures are even close to accurate, at first a consumer might think 'oh, the electric heater is almost half the cost to run!' And based purely on the figures, that would be right. However, people need to stop and think for a second. First, there's the cost of buying the electric heater to factor in. Then, people need to remember the electric heater is not heating the entire home, it's heating a single room/space.

So we're back to the convenience thing of running a system that can simultaneously heat the entire home (with variable temp control per room i.e. radiator thermostats) vs a system that is perhaps cheaper to run per hour, but only heats a single space and needs wheeled from room to room.

Then here's the biggy. If you buy two of the electric heaters e.g. one for downstairs one for upstairs, the hourly running cost is roughly the same if not slightly more than running the existing central heating system! Plus the initial purchase cost of the electric heaters, this needs factored in.

I'm not making light of people who are struggling financially. If for some it makes financial sense to buy a single heater and turn their central heating off, who are any of us to judge. However when you factor everything in, I reckon that has to be a minority of the public. Even then, they'd probably be better running the existing central heating something like two hours on one hour off to save money, at least then they're heating the entire home or multiple rooms as required.

Their assertions for reasons to buy are very very weak, as is usual for IW.

I've a 15Kw boiler, which is roughly 76p an hour under present contract which heats 5 radiators (24Kw version of my boiler heats 10 radiators), one of which is in the bathroom which those ceramic radiators shouldn't be wheeled into for safety reasons, you need to have them wall fitted and prob need an electrician to get the job wired safely.

For me only one choice, that's gas, to use ceramic heaters and have the same heat/comfort around the house as i presently have would cost me a fortune in comparison.