Innovative gas heater's on-off switch is just a phone call away

Nigel Bamford with his Escea heater.

A gas fire that turns itself on and off with a phone call, believed to be a world-first, has been invented by three young Kiwi entrepreneurs.

Escea company director Nigel Bamford, 28, said he was surprised no one had thought of it before.

"If you're driving away from the house, you won't have those arguments about who remembered to turn the fire off," he said.

The Escea gas fires took three years to develop and have been on sale in New Zealand for four months, earning about $170,000 a month so far. The company employs 13 staff.

The three directors, aged 28, 30 and 32, targeted women consumers in their research and discovered the gas-fire market was badly in need of some innovative thinking.

"Gas fires seemed to be stuck in the 1970s," Bamford said. "We made consulting with women a key focus because gas fires have traditionally been designed by blokes.

"But they are a home appliance and an aesthetic feature so women's input was very important."

The mock logs inside Escea heaters are modelled on native timber, the wireless control switch is wall-mounted and can be up to 20m away from the fire, and both models have glass doors so they use two-thirds less gas than open-fronted fires.

Bamford said efficient use of gas was a key design focus of the company, especially since wood fires were becoming environmentally unpopular.

The larger Escea model, just over 1m long, retails at just under $4000, including the "phone activation" function.