Editor's Note: With this post we welcome yet another new writer on board. Alina currently writes out of the Netherlands, and has her own fab blog (see link from her name above). We're looking forward to subsequent posts from Alina!
UK's Energy Saving Trust is launching a campaign urging DIY stores and garden chains to stop selling outdoor patio heaters, while urging consumers to find alternatives. According to today's article by Michael Howie in Scotsman.com, the Trust is "calling on responsible retailers to reconsider the sale of patio heaters in light of the substantial amount of carbon emissions they produce."
Results from a recent report, the number of privately owned units in the UK is set to increase from 1.2 to 2.3 million. It is estimated that, in Scotland alone, there are 161,000 households that either own, or plan to own, a patio heater. This would produce around 7,700 tonnes of CO2 a year, the equivalent of a jumbo jet flying from New York to London 37 times, or, alternatively, powering 1,283 homes.
The news comes at a time when much discussion is going on over the UK smoking ban, which is encouraging pub owners to heat outdoor space, now that smokers are not allowed to smoke indoors. The environmental group Friends of the Earth has already been defending a government ban on patio heaters. According to the BBC News, Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, has called for a "halt in the spread of wasteful patio heaters" and urged retailers not to promote them. Wyevale, a leading garden chain has announced last April that it was to stop selling the heaters.
In the meantime, while Michael Howie's article offers readers alternative tips to stay warm without the use of street heaters, another article in the Scotsman by Gaby Soutar, published just last Saturday, is encouraging the same readers to to decorate their outdoor dwellings and to take "the chill off the evening air" with those "efficient" patio heaters, a "necessary purchase if you want to use your garden after the sun goes down". Does anyone else notice the irony here?
