| Perception | | Reality | | 22% of people believe patio heaters emit more CO 2 than plasma tv's, tumble dryers, keep-warm kettles, driving to a local restaurant and mobile phone chargers. | | Patio heaters emit the LEAST CO 2 of all of these appliances. Tumble driers emit around four times as much as patio heaters. | | | | | | 29% of people said they would never consider using a patio heater as they are too environmentally unfriendly. | | You would need 10 patio heaters in order to emit as much CO 2 as ONE plasma television. | | | | | | Patio heaters have been said to have pushed up Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 380,000 tonnes a year. | | This figure is grossly inaccurate, as it is based on the MAXIMUM output of EVERY heater in circulation, regardless of how often they are used. A more realistic figure is 22,000 tonnes, which has been calculated independently by the Government's Market Transformation Unit, and it is a twentieth of the figure quoted. | YouGov Survey According to the YouGov survey commissioned by the leading energy supplier Calor, one on 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 CO 2 emissions. Nearly a third stated they would never use patio heaters because they believed 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 CO 2 as a patio heater. in actual fact, televisions on standby mode in th UK produce 37 times more CO 2 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 CO 2 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 CO 2 over a year - twice the annual CO 2 output of a patio heater (35kg). Dr Eric johnson, National Expert Reviewer for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and manageing 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 CO 2 - yet attract barely any contoversy 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 CO 2 as a one-way flight from London to Sydney - that's well over a century for a return trip".
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