Greenhomes: Are AGAs bad for the environment?

The Telegraph stoked up the so called ‘Aga wars’ today with an article continuing the debate started by environmentalist George Monbiot. 

Monbiot launched his (notional as far as I can tell) Campaign Against Agas in a Guardian article back in January where he claimed that each of the much adored British farmhouse kitchen icons pumps nine tons of Carbon into the atmosphere each year.

In her Telegraph article today Sarah Lonsdale points out that the Aga’s annual carbon emission of 3.5tons a year doesn’t quite squeeze into the British household target of 3 tons p.a. by 2020 (the average home today produces 6 tons).

Despite that, fans of the Aga point out that you save emissions in other areas – by using the Aga to heat your house, cook, dry clothes – replacing other appliances and energy using devices (probably made in Asia and shipped to the UK) with a Suffolk made product that will last a lifetime.

I have no doubt that the black and white Aga in the corner of my grandparents’ cottage in Hampshire is still going today.  As JohnJo says on the Aga central website ‘The last one we had was over 40 years old and had decades more in it’.

Reading the comments after the Telegraph article today reveals a real affection for these ‘last a lifetime’ appliances – when was the last time you heard someone defending their microwave so passionately?

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