Article reproduced from The Register
EU to ban the patio heaters that ate the planet.
Not.
In space, no one will let you heat...
By John
Lettice
Published Sunday 3rd February 2008 09:02 GMT
An overwhelming majority of EU MPs this week voted for
a
ban on patio heaters, calling on the European Commission
to set a timetable for the withdrawal from the market of
these and other "very energy-inefficient items of
equipment." But despite what you might read in the popular
prints, there are just a few obstacles standing in the way
of the immediate death of these planet-wrecking engines of
doom.
For starters, what is it about patio heaters that is
energy-inefficient? The question is neither frivolous nor
jesuitical, if one considers the context. The MEPs were
voting to adopt a report on energy efficiency as part of a
process initiated by a Commission document, Action Plan
for Energy Efficiency. This document proposes a series of
measures intended to save over 20 per cent in EU annual
energy consumption by 2020, via improvements in
insulation, energy use management and the efficiency of
energy-using devices.
Patio heaters are at no point mentioned in this
document,
but they could possibly be considered by the Commission as
part of its plan to push for more energy-efficient
products, to introduce energy-efficient labeling and to
increase consumers' awareness of the energy consumption of
the appliances they own. In IT and consumer electronics,
good examples of this in action would be standby mode in
TVs, monitors and external power supplies. The Commission
document isn't specific on standby targets, but the
Parliament report calls on the Commission to impose a one
watt requirement, and to produce an analysis of the
savings that could be made by eliminating standby mode
altogether.
Overall, however, the Commission action plan focuses on
specific categories of device and appliance with a view to
setting minimum performance standards for them in terms of
energy efficiency. It doesn't call for the outlawing of
specific categories of activity or appliance on the
grounds that they're stupid, unethical or evil, it merely
attempts to ensure that the energy used by these
activities and appliances is used efficiently.
So try that on patio heaters. The most common of these
consist of a bottle of gas, a burner and a reflector unit
that throws the heat out in a circle around the heater.
They're not exactly complicated constructions, and they do
pretty much what it says on the tin - they heat patios,
pretty effectively. You could certainly argue that it's
profligate and wasteful to be heating patios on a cold
February night when we should all be snug in our heavily-
insulated eco-friendly homes, but it's surely unreasonable
to claim they're "energy-inefficient" - if heating patios
is what you want to do, they're a pretty damned efficient
way to do it. And yes you might argue that it's somehow
wrong and against nature to be using these things, but
similar arguments could be applied to using electric
lights. Or wearing jumpers. Or trying to live in the
northern hemisphere in winter.
But we'll help the MEPs out on efficiency by explaining
how compared to other ways of heating patios, the typical
gas patio heater isn't necessarily the most efficient way
to do it. According to the Market Transformation
Programme, which provides support for the UK government in
sustainable energy policy, electricity has a carbon burden
that is greater than that of LPG by a factor of 2.3, but
electric outdoor heaters can nevertheless be more
efficient than LPG heaters because they produce focused
radiant heat, and because they can be switched on and off
by movement detectors.
So depending on usage, electric heaters could be more
efficient than LPG ones. If the area to be heated isn't
actually going to be occupied for most of the day, then
electricity is probably better, but if it's going to be in
continuous use, then it's a question of checking out the
carbon audits of the electricity company versus the gas
bottle supplier to figure out which is greener. There's a
case for electricity, but it's by no means a
straightforward one.
The MEPs could have followed the Commission's non-
judgmental approach and recommended the production of
comparative energy efficiency figures for outdoor heaters,
backed up by EU regulations requiring minimum standards.
But they didn't do this, they went off-piste and simply
called for the outright banning of patio heaters, full
stop. And although they claimed do so in the name of
energy efficiency, their problem was more likely that they
wanted them eliminated because they're wrong, and their
use is reckless, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.
So how wrong, reckless and dangerous might that be? How
much of the planet are these ludicrous appliances
destroying? According to the MTP, gas sales to the outdoor
heater market in England in 2006 produced emissions of
22.2 ktCO2. In the wake of the smoking ban, it estimated
that emissions could be between 141 and 282 ktCO2
annually. For electric heaters, the emissions could be 96-
192 ktCO2. The UK's total production of CO2 in 2006,
according to DEFRA, was 556.5 million tonnes, meaning that
the patio heater's share is negligible, even at the upper
end of the MTP's estimates. Passenger cars, on the other
hand, accounted for a chunky 68.7 million tonnes of the
UK's Carbon tab - so are we banning them, then? ®
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