Is a Henry any good for use as a normal household vaccum or is it better
suited for workshop use?

Yes , the answer is to go outside,but,say if your on the top floor of a
10
storey block and the lifts are broke....

The Henry wins as it is a bagged or bagless cleaner. You can use bags if you
want, but it will work without. So your normal household cleaning can use
the bags. When you're doing serious DIY rubble work which isn't worthy of
the expense and doesn't require the extra filtration, forget the bag.

Christian.