The portable heaters struck by 'fake ad' bans as regulator cracks down on energy claims

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Consumers have been warned about electric heater ads that claim to be cheaper than central heating after a regulator banned four for inaccuracies.The Advertising Standards Authority banned ads for the InstaHeat, Keilini, Heater Pro and Heater Pro X as they all claimed to be cheaper than gas central heating.After seeking advice from the Energy Saving Trust, the regulator found that gas heating is currently cheaper than electricity.

It also found that it is more efficient to heat a room with a radiator rather than with a plug-in mini-heater. As a result, and following no responses from any of the four advertisers, all of the ads were banned.The Advertising Standards Authority said: "Ads for products such as plug-in mini-heaters should ensure they’re not making inaccurate claims or exaggerate how effective they are. "They should take care not to mislead around how much they cost to run, or imply that they’re more cost-efficient than central heating without sufficient evidence to back up the claim.""We've banned all these ads and we'll be keeping a close eye on claims around how consumers can save money on their bills, especially heating," the regulator continued."We'll be taking compliance action in the coming weeks to ensure consumers are protected and that ads which don't comply with these rulings are removed."These rulings are a notice to advertisers that we won't hesitate to ban ads that break our rules."This comes after Radio 4 Sliced Bread podcast host Greg Foot tested four different types of portable heaters which claim to save you money.He compared several heaters and found that the ones which heated up faster cost more and the slower ones cost less, meaning they would all cost the same to get to a desired heat.Greg