YouGov survey

With environmental scare stories hitting the headlines on a daily basis, UK consumers are facing increasing pressure to be ‘green’. But a new survey released today reveals that worryingly, most consumers still don’t know which activities are the worst CO₂ offenders, with 93% failing to rank everyday appliances correctly – making it difficult for them to effectively reduce their own carbon footprint.

According to the YouGov survey commissioned by leading energy supplier Calor, one in four people ranked patio heaters top for annual energy usage, ahead of plasma televisions (7%), mobile phone chargers (12%), keep-warm kettles (12%) and driving to a local restaurant (12%) – all of which actually produce more annual CO₂ emissions. Nearly a third stated they would never use patio heaters because they believe they are environmentally-unfriendly. Only tumble dryers ranked more highly, although just 34% of people identified them correctly, despite them producing nearly four times as much CO₂ as a patio heater.

In actual fact, televisions on standby mode in the UK produce 37 times more CO₂ each year than the population of patio heaters. On standby mode alone, it would take an equivalent of ten patio heaters to produce as much CO₂ as one plasma TV does in a year. Even mobile phone chargers are surprisingly inefficient – if left plugged in when not charging they can produce up to 70kg of CO₂ over a year – twice the annual CO₂ output of a patio heater (35kg).

Perception vs Reality

The following table highlights some common misconceptions about patio heaters, and sets the record straight.

Dr Eric Johnson, National Expert Reviewer for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and managing director of Atlantic Consulting, says: “Patio heaters are recognised as ‘non-essential’ items, but televisions can hardly be considered essential and they emit 210 times more CO₂ – yet attract barely any controversy over their usage. The fact that a mobile phone charger uses more energy than a patio heater is testament to the panic that has erupted around them.

“It is actually ‘greener’ to stay at home and sit in the garden with a patio heater than use a car to drive to a local restaurant . And once comparisons start with well-known offenders such as aeroplanes, patio heaters dwarf in comparison. It would take more than 50 years of average patio heater usage to produce as much CO₂ as a one-way flight from London to Sydney – that’s well over a century for a return trip.

“What constitutes a ‘waste’ of energy is always going to be open to debate but it is important that the public is properly educated about environmental impacts in order to make informed decisions on their everyday activities.”

Andrew Ford, corporate affairs manager at Calor, says: “Patio heaters have been vilified over recent years so we were worried about the public’s perception of them. We organised this survey to gauge how much people really knew about CO₂ emissions as we felt it was our duty as a responsible fuel supplier to make sure that consumers were armed with the correct information.

“Unsurprisingly, one in ten consumers admitted to feeling completely overwhelmed by all the media coverage and that they still didn’t know how to cut their CO₂ emissions. Nearly a third said they would never use patio heaters due to their effects on the environment, yet most consumers wouldn’t think twice about purchasing a new television.

“We understand how important it is to be aware of CO₂ emissions and, as with any appliances, we advise consumers to be responsible and keep their usage to a minimum. We have partnered with carbon offset agency, Equiclimate, to allow our customers to offset all the CO₂ produced by their patio heaters. As a company, we will also be funding offsets for the production and distribution of the 13kg Patio Gas™ cylinders used to fuel patio heaters.”