Pubs are installing patio heaters in outdoor smoking areas
Posted on 06/10/2007 5:28:10 PM PDT by Stoat
Pubs are installing patio heaters in outdoor smoking areas
Patio heaters installed by pubs to keep smokers warm on chilly nights could soon produce as much carbon dioxide as a small city, it has been claimed.
Next month's smoking ban has triggered huge demand for the gas-fired heaters from pubs, restaurants and clubs creating legal outdoor smoking areas.
But according to experts, a single heater releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year than the average fuel-hungry "Chelsea tractor" - a large 4x4 car.
They estimate the additional patio heaters bought by pubs this year could produce up to 320,000 additional tons of carbon dioxide.
This equates to a "substantial chunk" of the annual reduction in greenhouse gases needed to meet Britain's Kyoto targets and close to the carbon emissions from every home in a city the size of Bath.
Although some DIY stores have banned patio heaters, tens of thousands of pubs have added them to gardens and outdoor areas to keep smokers happy.
"It's pretty sad that keeping warm while you have a cigarette is more important than tackling climate change, especially in a country familiar with simpler remedies to chilly evenings such as the woolly jumper," said Ben Tuxworth, of the environmental charity Forum for the Future.
The findings come from British Gas, which studied the impact of pub patio heaters as part of its energy saving campaign. It found half of all pubs in Scotland bought at least one patio heater after the smoking ban in March 2006. Many bought several.
With a single heater releasing almost four tons of greenhouse gases a year, the patio heaters installed in Scotland produced up to 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide in their first year, the company said.
British Gas estimates a minimum of 40,000 heaters will be bought for the July 1 deadline by English pubs.
That would produce around 160,000 additional tons of carbon.
If pubs buy two, the emissions would rise to 320,000 - the equivalent to the annual domestic carbon output of a small city. The estimates are based on Government findings that a typical commercial patio heater is used for around five hours a day, 237 days a year.
Jon Kimber, the company's spokesman on energy efficiency, said many homes were working hard to improve their energy efficiency.
"There has been a real step change in people's concerns about reducing their impact on the environment and it's worrying to see these efforts cancelled out by a sudden boom in patio heater sales," he said.
Earlier this year the garden chain Wyevale stopped selling patio heaters after pressure from environmental campaigners. According to Friends of the Earth, the energy used by a heater in one hour is the equivalent of boiling a kettle enough times to make 400 cups of tea.
Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said: "Patio heaters waste energy and inflict unnecessary damage on the environment.
"Ministers must do more to get their climate strategy back on track. It's time to ban the sale of these metal monstrosities."
The smoking ban in indoor public spaces begins on July 1 in England. Wales and Northern Ireland introduced their bans earlier this year.
They will only be happy when all evidence of Western culture including economics, culture, people and industry, are wiped off the face of the planet.
At that point they can happily move to Red China, Cuba, or another failed State that embraces the Socialist Miracle, where they will be greeted as heroes and have schools and roads named after them.
Then the destruction of Western Civ. can proceed merrily along. Environmentalist on one front, colonization from the south on another front, Islamic fanatics and Sharia law on yet another, and finally, Socialist Liberals in the House, the Senate, the Executive, and in the Judiciary.
Oh, what fun that'll be!
That reminds me of the whole thing with 'red'=conservative and 'blue'=liberal; my understanding is that it used to be the other way around, which would be more fitting, but that the MSM somehow or other switched them around - anyway, my thought was this: 'red' = red blooded patriots, 'blue' = blue faced whiny socialists.
I think that it happened first during the TV "coverage" of the 1994 elections...they didn't want to associate the Dems with their spiritual leaders, the commies, and so they switched them around intentionally.
Not only is CO2 NOT a pollutant, it’s a trace gas. It is a slight greenhouse gas. It is not causing global warming.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NBO2IstMi2A
Too bad it stuck.
Thanks for the ping!
LMAO! Great one! :-)
Thanks.
On the bright side, if these heaters cause enough global warming, then they won't need them anymoree.
Quite true :-)
Although if that were to happen, the EnviroJihadists would simply find another aspect of Western culture or technological superiority to rail against, providing they could do it smugly and profitably, of course.
If she had stayed at home and gotten good and drunk under her patio heaters rather than driving around town, she wouldn't have gotten into this mess to begin with.
They want heaters, and in the meantime sit in fair weather under umbrellas. Could there be a solar solution?
It must be noted over and over again.....beer is a major source of carbon dioxide. All the gas that fizzes the beer is emitted to the atmosphere directly or after passing through the drinker.
To save the planet, beer ( and coke) must be banned. The heater emissions are trivial nonsense in comparison to the beer.
I REALLY want to discover a 'greenhouse-related' objection to things like Tofu, wheatgrass, kelp (as a human food item), quiche, meat-substitutes and nonalcoholic beer. Bans on those sorts of things are bans that I would be delighted to support :-)
My BS meter just pegged, before it broke.
Can someone please explain how one heater can produce 8000 pounds of CO2 in one year?
Don't be bashful with the full explanations, I am searching for my high school chemistry book as we speak.
What do those things use, anyway? Propane? LNG? Butane?
Isn't there an old saying about something being bliss?
Oppenheimer, Einstein, Churchill, Feinman, FDR... yup.
Not only filthy disease ridden, but dumb as rocks.
Back to your trailer, sonny...
Don’t you think this nonsense has gone far enough?
There is something absolutely delightful about spending time with a vivacious young lady under the warm glow of an outdoor space heater in the evening....almost as nice as a campfire, and far nicer than straining to hear her sultry voice over the din of the other patrons and the blaring TV. If pubs are banned from providing them, perhaps customers will be allowed to bring their own portable units?
Vivacious young lass #1: "Which table would you like to sit at?"
Vivacious young lass #2 : "Ooooh....that one! He's got to be a Conservative...he's brought his own space heater!"
They are out working hard all day (and all night) for their beloved families, doing things that benefit society and humanity, which does not include most Government work and certainly not jobs with Enviro-Jihadist pressure groups. They are oftentimes so overworked that fascistic encroachments against their quality of life are often implemented before they have a chance to learn about them and mount an opposition to them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.