It's freezing cold outside, and not much warmer in the house. You plug in the electric heater in the bedroom and jump under the blankets. Slowly, you warm up. You flick through some magazines, read a chapter of your book. Time for sleep, and you flick off the bedside lamp.

Double drat! The heater is still on. Now you have to get out of bed, unplug the heater, and get back to bed.

But with the new FM Switcher, there's no more getting-out-of-bed-to-put-offthe-heater misery! Simply plug the device into the wall, plug the heater into it. Then use the remote control to turn it off without ever leaving the bed.

It works with any appliance using 13 amps or less, has a range of 25 metres, and you don't have to point it at the appliance like a TV remote control. You could start the coffee-maker the second you wake up, turn on a downstairs lamp from upstairs, set the electric blanket without getting up from the television.

Designed in Germany, the packs come with one (£45), two (£55) or three (£65) switchers for each remote control.

Available from Executek, Grafton Arcade in Dublin, and other outlets.