Sales rocket for powerful cleaners before the EU ban

trinidadone

Are fellow money savers aware of the vacuum cleaner ban?

Models of 1600 watts or above are being withdrawn by the EU on 1st September 2014, in an attempt to make European vacuum cleaners more "environmental cleaner" and make households "reduce energy".

Vacuum cleaners will have ratings like white goods, from A - G for energy use, cleaning performance and dust emissions.

Hairdryers, Lawn mowers and electric kettles may follow next spring.

So far the manufacturers and stores are quids in with a "masssive rush" of buying power.


Any thoughts???? Did you get a high powered vacuum cleaner?

There is still time if you need one (while stocks last)

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2737625/Vacuum-sales-44-EU-ban-sees-scramble-powerful-models.html

philatio

Daily Mail reading UKIP voting thought is that it's an utter disgrace.. the EU telling us we can't have strong hoovers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Common sense opinion is that a good modern efficient sub-1600watt vacuum can suck just as much if not more than an old clanky over 1600watt with a bag. So not that much to get wound up over.

However I believe they propose the lower the limit to 900 watts in a few years. Thats when the s**t will hit the fan (or in this case.. it won't even get up the tube near the fan)

Azari

I'm not too worried about vacuums because there's no need to have high powered motors when all they do is make up for inefficiencies in the design of the rest of the system.

However they now have kettles on a list of possible items for regulation and that is plain nutso.

In fact, lowering the power of a kettle will actually cause you to increase the amount of power required to raise a given quantity of water to a given temperature.

However, this is just a tentative list and I suspect someone with the vaguest knowledge of basic physics will explain to them why lowering the power of a kettle would be self defeating on the energy usage front.

(With a vacuum they physics isn't so clear cut but I hope they experiment thoroughly before they consider reducing the power limit to 900w which could, conceivably, be counter-productive.)

And why are they not thinking about cars. A lot of people waste vastly more energy moving a single person in great oversized lumps of vehicles than they do vacuuming their floors!

SailorSam

I think it's more important that they're are talking about lawnmowers being next. For anyone with anything but the smallest garden you need a more powerfull machine. Otherwise you're going to find the motors burning out and at the start of each year we'll need to buy new lawnmowers.
I don't throw anything away if i can help it and i've got two old hoovers it the loft which are on my 'to do' list and try and fix before they're scrapped.

Azari

SailorSam wrote: »

I think it's more important that they're are talking about lawnmowers being next. For anyone with anything but the smallest garden you need a more powerfull machine. Otherwise you're going to find the motors burning out and at the start of each year we'll need to buy new lawnmowers.

Another category where reducing the power is not going to work.

You either need to reduce the speed at which the blades are spinning, meaning users have to go back and forth over the same patch to cut it properly or you keep the speed the same and reduce the width of the cut so that users have to use the mower for longer to cover the same area. (Exactly the same two scenarios, mutatis mutandis, as would be occur if the power of vacuums had to be reduced too far.)

philatio

There's also the whole discussion of 'what's the point?'

One school of thought is that every little saving helps the planet.

But in a world where China, the US and pretty much the entire rest of the world is using energy like there's no tomorrow.. will knocking 200W off your hoover really make any difference?

patman99

Don't forget that any hoover sold for use in a commercial environment (such as cleaning offices and factories) is exempt (as are 'wet & dry' hoovers).

So instead of buying your powerful 1600Watt+ hoover from the likes of Currys or Hughes, you would buy from somewhere like Machinemart, Wickes or Screwfix.

Esqui

Azari wrote: »

I'm not too worried about vacuums because there's no need to have high powered motors when all they do is make up for inefficiencies in the design of the rest of the system.

However they now have kettles on a list of possible items for regulation and that is plain nutso.

In fact, lowering the power of a kettle will actually cause you to increase the amount of power required to raise a given quantity of water to a given temperature.

However, this is just a tentative list and I suspect someone with the vaguest knowledge of basic physics will explain to them why lowering the power of a kettle would be self defeating on the energy usage front.

(With a vacuum they physics isn't so clear cut but I hope they experiment thoroughly before they consider reducing the power limit to 900w which could, conceivably, be counter-productive.)

And why are they not thinking about cars. A lot of people waste vastly more energy moving a single person in great oversized lumps of vehicles than they do vacuuming their floors!

It's more than just lowering the power of the item. For kettles, one proposal was to have higher manufacturing standards so that they would last longer and fewer would need to be produced. There was no suggestion of a maximum wattage. Similarly with hairdryers, a trial in Germany was based on power consumption vs performance, so that higher power dryers would be fine, as long as there was a corresponding increase in performance.


As for cars, you have seen how fuel consumption has changed over the last 20 years, right?

Azari

Esqui wrote: »

It's more than just lowering the power of the item. For kettles, one proposal was to have higher manufacturing standards so that they would last longer and fewer would need to be produced. There was no suggestion of a maximum wattage. Similarly with hairdryers, a trial in Germany was based on power consumption vs performance, so that higher power dryers would be fine, as long as there was a corresponding increase in performance.

That's good news. I can't remember where I read the article but it was presumably written by someone who valued sensationalism at the expense of accuracy.

As for cars, you have seen how fuel consumption has changed over the last 20 years, right?

Makes no difference. People driving cars that are much bigger than they need are wasting fuel.

Norman_Castle

I use an old, 1100 watt maximum, Henry. By comparison, If watts equaled suction power a 2000 watt vacuum should suck the colour out of the carpet.

I'm sure the next generation of vacuums will compensate by using "Twin mega turbo cyclonic hurricane" technology as a marketing tool instead of electrical energy consumption.

mattyprice4004

Bloomin' EU. I'm happy driving my diesel-guzzling automatic estate car with only me in it, having a 2000w hoover and a house full of incandescent bulbs. Just leave me to it!