It heats and it lights

For the January frosts, the Moscow company TEPLODOM CJSC has come up with two novelties — as they say, one for the soul and one for the body. Let us start with the latter.

The Emelya-2 electric heater (photo 1) is the kid brother of the popular Emelya electric heater. The main differences? Well, first, the Emelya-2 has grown somewhat better looking, and second, a bit more sprightly: it now heats up faster thanks to the redesigned heating elements, made of carbon fiber on a polyurethane foam base. The manufacturers claim they have managed to achieve defect-free production — well, one would like to believe that nothing beneath the fleshy parts of the body will "short out" or come off.

In the Emelya-2 we immediately liked the branded plug (photo 2). The developers complain about its high price, but everyone has long been fed up with the self-disassembling designs sold at the markets. By the way, some of the Emelyas will be made with an even more "advanced" plug, equipped with a built-in power regulator (photo 3). Such a heater will cost more — while the basic one can be had for about 600 RUB, the regulated one will run about a hundred and fifty rubles extra.

So much for the body — and what about the soul? For that occasion the company offers everyone a chance to acquire luminous signs to glue onto the rear window of the car (photos 4, 5). The units are powered from the car's onboard network through a special high-voltage converter. The wording of the sign can naturally vary, but their main purpose will most likely be a round-the-clock warning to potential "staged-accident" artists that they have picked the wrong "mark" to make money on: the car, you see, is insured! Such luminous "advertising" will cost the owner about 800 RUB. Pricey, of course — but peace of mind is worth it.

Column materials prepared by / Mikhail Kolodochkin