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Yes you can buy a fan for £20 – in fact I have even seen small ones advertised for under a tenner – but of course they have blades and in most cases only a single power setting. A blade is lethal to birds and nasty for children.

Open the box and there are two parts the top ring with a portion of the stem and the rest of the stem including all the electronics and the power lead. The two parts just fit together, site the unit and switch on that’s all you need to do.

This unit is described as 12inch; the ring itself is 12inches at the rear and close to 14inches at the front. Now a small amount of air is sucked in at the base of the unit through a circle of small holes this is despatched around the front edge of the rear of the ring which in turn sucks a lot more air from the area behind the fan ‘multiplying’ it by around 15 times to give the flow of air you feel on any uncovered part of you body giving the illusion of cool air it is in fact only slightly cooler than the current temperature but your body thinks its cool air.

The stem of the Air Multiplier is close to 7inches tall but only 5inches across as the weight is all the base you need far less width to make it steady than a conventional fan. The electric lead is 1.8metres long and is hard wired.

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The lead length is unlikely to be long enough for most but it works fine with an extension lead or into a gang socket.

Around 2inches above the base the unit can slide forward or backwards on itself meaning you can have the ring part of the unit tilting forward or backwards to raise or lower the area of the room that gets the benefit of it.

There are three controls towards the bottom of the front of the unit an on/off touch button that glows blue when it has mains power, however while flicking the switch at the plug the unit is not on until the button is touched. Next is a circular rotation knob that controls the power of the air being blown from a gentle breeze reasonably quiet to a real breeze that is naturally fairly noisy. Finally a further touch button that allows the unit to rotate through 90 degrees.

With most fans I find that papers on a desk need to be weighted down however at lower levels with the Air Multiplier this is not required.

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In the bedroom at lower speeds it really should not disturb you while cooling you in the hot weather. Certainly as a poor sleeper I found I was able to sleep with the Air Multiplier on in its lowest level of power as it was only a gentle breeze and the noise level even around two metres away was really very quite.

I understand they have now produced a extending pedestal version (around £100 more) and that will come with a remote control.

During this hot summer you certainly need a method of cooling, while you are not really being cooled to a fan or the Air Multiplier your body thinks it is cooler. As stated air conditioning will cool the room until you get your next electricity bill.

This is lovely unit that can simply be wiped clean (something that is very difficult with a fan) it is safe for both pets like birds and even with children. I can see only two problems the price and the short mains lead.

Doing my Internet searches found the Dyson Air Multiplier (12inch) at a best price of £193 including delivery from the first link below. There is also a (10inch) version available at £15 less.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003B3N190?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003B3N18G?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.dyson.co.uk/fans/default.asp