Kill the Planet to Save the Planet?

The DIY chain for which I work has just gone into selling alternative energy sources with domestic wind turbines and solar panels.
The wind turbines claim to "cut your electricity bills by up to one-third" with a pay-back time of 5-7 years. The solar panels will supply hot water - even in winter - and cut your heating bills by a large margin. Again the pay-back time is 5-7 years.
All very commendable. Save on fossil fuels. Cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Let's all go out and buy this technology and save the planet. The cost is not prohibitive, especially if you consider the "Pay-back" period.
Have you noticed where I'm heading? The emphasis is not so much on saving the environment- more save your pocket. The whole selling emphasis is "how much money can I save". Nobody is thinking "What can I do to help the environment?" because if they really did they would realise that the best way is not to try to continue your energy usage but to decrease it.
I wonder if the calculations made by the manufacturers on cutting emissions include the emissions created in the manufacture of this equipment? If this is factored in - and real savings for the future of the planet are the goal - how much overall gain, if any, is there?
Surely the only sure way to cut emissions in a truly meaningful way is to change our way of life.
The consumer society in which we live must change if we are to make a difference. Surely it is better to consume less energy - however it is produced.
Silly things like leaving the TV, DVD, hi-fi, PC - even the microwave - on standby instead of totally disconnecting make a substantial contribution to our energy consumption. In my own hypocritical fashion I'm wasting energy using my PC to create a blog which I know few - if any - will read. Even better - why not do without some of our power-hungry appliances? My wife has a dishwasher - me! I only emit greenhouse gases when I fart - which is not very often!
When I was a kid we did not have a refrigerator, an all-singing all-dancing washing machine, central heating, running hot water - many of the things which we take totally for granted nowadays. Water was heated only when needed. Clothes washing was done in a boiler and drying clothes started with a mangle and finished by hanging on a line in the garden or an airer in the kitchen. Milk was bought fresh and frequently from the local grocer in small amounts so that it would not go off. Meat was bought from the local butcher in quantities that would be used before it could go mouldy. The coming of hypermarkets has killed off the little corner shop where you could get small amounts as you needed them. They have also encouraged the use of gas-guzzling vehicles to go for the weekly shop.
Perhaps we didn't live such a bad life in the past. Maybe we should be thinking about combining the best bits of life from 50 years ago - including the community spirit that was part and parcel of it - with the energy-consciousness that we all should have today. Then we could do lots more to pass on a viable environment for our children - and their children - and theirs . . .