One of the first things I bought was a fan heater. It came in very useful year after year when heating was switched off at the official season change dates regardless of how cold it was. With everyone else i knew having theirs on full blast, the electricity cost must have exceeded the central heating
Always thought that myself, they put some single people in empty quarters at Brize due to lack of single accommodation, ( the ones past the service station ) and naturally they turned the heating full on 24/7, visited my mate and he was controlling the room temp by opening the window, needless to say that experiment ended shortly after the station got the bills for the electricity and gas.