Bathroom heating lights

I installed several of those heat and light units recently in a holiday cottage without any “proper” heating. One in each bedroom and one in the kitchen. I put all four on a dedicated 16 amp circuit. 

Cheap, simple and tenant resistant. Not ideal for full winter, but handy for extending the letting season a bit. 

Also used on farms for warming piglets in severe weather. The dim orange glow in heat only mode is said to permit of a sow seeing her piglets and not rolling on them, as is a risk in full darkness.

Ah memories - we used to call the thing in my grandparents bathroom  a ‘pig lamp’ though it would have looked just as good over the hot trolley in a restaurant - a glass thing in the lamp holder about the size of a landrover MK1 sealed beam unit. In the winter it got augmented by a portable gas fire  that could be connected by red rubber host to the gas point by the door, a point like that in each room as I recall. From memory I was not allowed to do this, it the fire had to be connected and lit promptly by a grown-up with a wooden spill. The arrival of the North Sea gas retired that one before I was old enough to be allowed.

It is thinking about this sort of thing that makes me realise how much the world has changed in the last  half  century.

Mike.

There are different designs of heating lights. The classic UFO shaped one from the 1970s with its circular heating element is still manufactured by Goldair, although its build quality is not as high as the original. More modern designs use a pair or quartet of infra red bulbs along with an LED light, and can even be recessed into the ceiling.

Heating lights are not only used in bathrooms. They can also be used in outbuildings and corridors.