Now They’re After Your Fridges!
By Paul Homewood
Middle-class families should stop buying large fridges in order to save energy and tackle climate change, a government-commissioned report has suggested.
Families could save up to £36 a year on their electricity bills by replacing large fridge-freezers or televisions with smaller appliances, according to a study published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change.
The report found that the average family fridge had grown in volume by two fifths since 1985, amid a fashion for large American-style appliances, while the average television had grown by more than seven inches since 2004. It warned that the trend undermined attempts to cut carbon emissions.
The study, by researchers at Loughborough University and Cambridge Architectural Research, found that energy-efficient technology was not enough to offset the increase in the size of appliances. For example, a 52in television with an A+ energy rating still uses more electricity than a 42in model with an A rating.
Nicola Terry, a co-author of the study, said: “Why do we need a bigger TV, and why do we need a bigger fridge? I don’t understand the case, but when people go to the shop they think, that’s bigger it must be better.”
And it’s not only the Middle Class!
Affluent families stood to save the most by buying a smaller fridge or freezer, while poorer social classes – classified as “claimant culture” or “ex-council estate” – would save more by buying smaller televisions. The report also suggested drying clothes outside between April and October, rather than using a tumble dryer.
I’ve actually got a much better idea. Abolish the waste of taxpayers’ money used to fund this sort of worthless research, and let the researchers go out and get proper jobs. In the meantime, if I want a big telly, large fridge or fast car, I will have one, regardless of what some jumped up little researcher thinks.
Trackbacks
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
And digital televisions and radio’s use more electricity (or the used to anyway) than analogue but we are being forced to change.
I am sure that the manufacturers and retailers of electrical goods will be very grateful for this report.
What about the “upper classes” and the very wealthy?
If l was going to save any money in ditching electrical appliances to save my power bill
It would surely be the TV !! Rubbish in…
corrupts the young
I certainly wouldn’t ditch a large fridge/ freezer.. That’s the food cupboard!!
“I’ve actually got a much better idea. Abolish the waste of taxpayers’ money used to fund this sort of worthless research, and let the researchers go out and get proper jobs. In the meantime, if I want a big telly, large fridge or fast car, I will have one, regardless of what some jumped up little researcher thinks.”
HEAR HEAR.
+10000
I am sure the super-rich will be buying smaller TVs and fridges – for their Lear jets and four by fours along with electric coffee cup warmers and Martini glass coolers.
Ms Terry can’t understand that having a big fridge reduces the number of visits to the supermarket and, if you believe this green nonsense, helps to save the planet for future generations.
She fails to appreciate that her pay and that of Ed Davey and all the geeks in his ministry comes from these very middle classes she wants to control. Benefit parasites and the super rich contribute nothing to the common good.
Reblogged this on the WeatherAction Blog.
Are we only one climate treaty and a U.N. run single government away from from being TOLD what we can have, rather than asked?
Yes.
Certainly not – it’ll be by an EU diktat.
Typical blinkered approach by taxpayer-funded ‘researchers’.
Perhaps closer to reality is:- “Families could save up to £300 a year by replacing small fridge-freezers with larger ones, to maximise the benefits of supermarkets’ BOGOF offers”
It’s really rather difficult isn’t it, to come to terms with the idea that we have these huge sclerotic ridiculously titled departments spending our money on “bums on seats” and empty suits to produce so-called reports like this. Thank you Mr Davey, you’re a gem. Up the Liberals!
Forgive them Father for they know not what they do:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/11/3459111/wcc-christians-divests/
Scroll down for the story.
Having a large fridge/freezer is very useful if you grow your own produce. When it comes time to harvest lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, greens, corn, strawberries, blueberries, celery, blackberries, green beans, etc., etc., etc., having a super-capacity fridge will save you lots of wasted produce you put time and hard work into growing and rearing to harvest.
Personally, I would like to take a room a throw a walk-in cooler into it.
Abolish the BBC, then we all save money – but TV purchasing may well increase!
Nicola Terry, a co-author of the study, said: “Why do we need a bigger TV, and why do we need a bigger fridge? I don’t understand the case, but when people go to the shop they think, that’s bigger it must be better.”
How does “F@ck off!” sound?
To me, it sounds like the perfect technical expression. These are people that know best what we ‘need’ (i.e. what they think we ought to have) and do not know the importance of what we want.