What are best and worst energy efficient appliances

Mr_Proctalgia

That was exactly my point, heat is generally the last refuge of energy (as you cannot destroy it) If a 100w bulb gave out 100 watts worth of light we would all be walking around with welders masks on, what you do get, whether you want it or not is heat, OK CF lamps are a big step forward and LED's when they get better will be another step forward (or maybe cold cathode will develop) The argument is that everything puts out heat even when it isn't really designed for heating and that fact makes things inefficient, houses do absorb all heat from all sources I grant you but I would like to not heat my house with my lights.

Here is a quote about Power Factor

A power factor of one or "unity power factor" is the goal of any electric utility company since if the power factor is less than one, they have to supply more current to the user for a given amount of power use. In so doing, they incur more line losses. They also must have larger capacity equipment in place than would be otherwise necessary. As a result, an industrial facility will be charged a penalty if its power factor is much different from 1.

Industrial facilities tend to have a "lagging power factor", where the current lags the voltage (like an inductor). This is primarily the result of having a lot of electric induction motors - the windings of motors act as inductors as seen by the power supply. Capacitors have the opposite effect and can compensate for the inductive motor windings. Some industrial sites will have large banks of capacitors strictly for the purpose of correcting the power factor back toward one to save on utility company charges.


I am well aware (as indeed you are) about the huge banks of capacitors seem in some factories, but surely if a little more care were taken with the design of domestic appliances it would all help - I was simply having a whinge about the low
efficiency of my washing machine.

Cardew

Mr_Proctalgia wrote:

I am well aware (as indeed you are) about the huge banks of capacitors seem in some factories, but surely if a little more care were taken with the design of domestic appliances it would all help - I was simply having a whinge about the low
efficiency of my washing machine.

I understood the point you were making about Power factor, but perhaps most of the readers of this forum did not?

You talked about the possibility of correcting the P/F of the washing machine and efficiency in the same paragraph. As this is a money saving forum, some might think the low P/F of a washing machine might be costing them money and they should look for a machine with a higher P/F.

My TIC comment about the cooker and lamp was that you claimed the cooker to have 100% efficiency as the superfluous heat went into the building. Well so does the superfluous heat of the 100w bulb!