Incidently John, a funny little story for you, you are going to love this, and admittedly I'm leaving myself wide open here for a barrage of abuse, lol.
You mentioned our little fan thing on top of the fire. Well to have the fire supplied and fitted, and the fact they had to build us a brand new false chimney breast to boot, cost a small fortune. So due to the fact we'd spent so much money they thought it would be a nice gesture to throw that fan in free of charge....cheapskates, lol.
I took it out of the box, had a quick look at it, and put it back in the box feeling rather disgruntled. I left it on top of the mantle piece and there it stayed for a couple of weeks until our kid came up to inspect our new fire.
"How come you're not using your fan", he said, with a puzzled look on his face.
"Because it's a dud, no wonder it was free of charge, it's rubbish", i said.
"Why, what's up with it, it looks alright to me", he said, whilst spinning the blade round with his finger.
"Because the damn thing hasn't got a battery compartment to put batteries in, how the hell's it meant to work?"
Yes, I am utterly ashamed, and my brother laughed his head off, probably in a similar manor to you right now, lol.
I honestly, hand on heart, didn't have a clue how they worked....but I do now!