Blog
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How to Site a Fire Pit Safely (and Choose the Right Fuel)
Clearance, surface, and prevailing wind decide the location. Wood, propane, and gel each change the rules — here's what differs and why.
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Infrared vs. Convection Heaters: Which Suits Your Room?
Infrared warms objects and people directly; convection warms the air. Same wattage, very different experience — the right choice depends on the room.
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What Does a Space Heater Actually Cost to Run?
Rated watts ÷ 1000 × hours × your tariff. Here's how to compute it properly, including why a thermostat changes the answer substantially.
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Do Electric Fireplaces Actually Heat a Room?
A small one, yes. A large or open-plan one, no — and the reason is a hard limit on how much power a standard plug socket can deliver.
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What Is a Smart Fireplace?
A network module driving the appliance's own controller — not a heater on a smart plug. What the connectivity genuinely adds, and what it can't.
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Electric vs. Gas Fireplace: Where the Heat Actually Goes
Electric puts all its energy in the room but buys expensive energy. Gas buys cheap energy and sends some up the flue. The comparison in full.
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Can You Put a Space Heater on a Smart Plug?
Usually no, and the reason is the plug's rated load rather than the app. What smart control adds to a heater, and what it can't safely add.
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Are Electric Fireplaces Safe?
No combustion means no carbon monoxide and no flue — which removes the biggest risks. What's left is electrical load, clearance, and mounting.
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Why Fire Pits Smoke, and What "Smokeless" Actually Means
Smoke is unburnt fuel escaping. Wet wood and starved airflow cause it, and a double-wall pit fixes it by burning the smoke a second time.
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How LED Dimming Works, and Why It Sometimes Flickers
LEDs don't dim like filaments — they switch on and off very fast, or run at lower current. Why old dimmers buzz, flicker, and refuse to go low.
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How to Measure What a Heater Actually Draws
Rated wattage is a maximum, not an average. A plug-in energy monitor turns a guess about running cost into a measurement of your own room.
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Can You Leave a Heater On Overnight?
Only if the manual says so, and even then the room matters more than the appliance. What unattended running changes, and which heaters tolerate it.
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How a Fire Pit Actually Warms You
Outdoors, a fire heats you by radiation only — never the air. That's why your front roasts while your back is cold, and why distance matters so much.
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CRI: Why Two Bulbs at the Same Brightness Look Different
Colour rendering measures how faithfully a light shows colour, not how bright or warm it is. It's the spec that decides whether a room looks flat.
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Why "100% Efficient" Doesn't Mean Cheap to Run
Electric resistance heating turns nearly all its input into heat — and can still be the expensive option. Efficiency and cost are separate questions.
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How Does an Electric Fireplace Actually Work?
Two independent machines in one cabinet: a resistive heater, and an optical illusion made from LEDs and a rotating reflector. Here's how each part works.
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Propane vs. Wood Fire Pits: What the Fuel Actually Changes
Wood burns in two stages and warms you from its embers. Gas burns in one and warms you from the flame. That difference drives everything else.
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Heaters, Plugs, and Circuit Limits: Why the Socket Is the Limit
A heater is one of the heaviest continuous loads in a home. Why it goes straight into a wall socket, and what a circuit rating actually constrains.
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What Colour Temperature Actually Means
Kelvin describes the colour of a light, not its heat — and the scale runs backwards from what the words suggest. How to read it and why mixing fails.
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How Do You Size a Heater to a Room?
Floor area alone can't size a heater. The method uses room volume, insulation, and target temperature — plus the ceiling a plug socket imposes.