One good thing today......we will get decent vacuum cleaners by October 2018

meer53

Nilrem wrote: »

IIRC the resulations would have called for slightly more care to be taken with the design of things like kettles and toasters.
Things like making them so less heat is lost through the sidewalls not only makes them cheaper to run, but more efficient as you're not heating the room they're in as much.

Think about how a modern house can often be heated for a lot less than an older ones, mainly due to things like double glazing (far less heat loss through the windows, or even poorly fitted wooden frames), wall insulation, and roof insulation.
You can actually tell at a glance on days when there is snow what houses need better insulation, the house that is in a row with far less/no snow on the roof is typically the one that needs better insulation (or is being used as a cannabis farm).

The same principle applies to pretty much everything that heats or cools, the addition of a simple insulating layer, or swapping from a thin metal housing to a plastic one can make a massive difference in performance.

Still can't see why anyone would worry about the performance of a kettle ! It boils water, unless you're using it constantly 24 hours a day whats to worry about ? I've been using the same Dyson for about 8 years, still sucks as well as it did to begin with, when it stops, i'll buy another if it can't be repaired.

Ectophile

Not so long ago, I bough a new Henry cleaner. It has a massive 620W motor.

It's still powerful enough to suck the carpet off the floor.

There's really no need for cleaners with ridiculously big motors that seem only to exist to give the manufacturers bragging rights.

paddyrg

Yet, of course, we won't. Manufacturers will still make and ship a European model which we'll still sell rather than retooling to make more expensive, slightly sucker models.

Nilrem

meer53 wrote: »

Still can't see why anyone would worry about the performance of a kettle ! It boils water, unless you're using it constantly 24 hours a day whats to worry about ? I've been using the same Dyson for about 8 years, still sucks as well as it did to begin with, when it stops, i'll buy another if it can't be repaired.

Because it's not just one kettle a few times a day.

It's several hundred million across the EU, that equates to probably a couple of good sized power stations.

It's like CFL and LED lightbulbs instead of incandescent, people complained about the cost of the bulbs but didn't consider for a second that a CFL or well made LED bulb will last anyhitng from 5-20+ times as long as incandescent bulbs, whilst drawing as little as 10% of the power.
That is for something that will be on for hours at a time, often 8-12 or more.

I swapped most of ours to CFL as soon as I could, I went from changing a bulb every couple of weeks (or every week depending on fittings) to having to change a single bulb in the last 12 months.

At the same time I dropped the power consumption for lighting in the Living room from about 400 watts to 80, and that was before I moved from CFL to LED after about 10 years (the LED ones are much nicer, brighter and lower power again), whilst the power consumption in one of the bedrooms went from 240 watts to about 40 moving from R50's to R50 style LED's (and no more clearing up glass every few weeks as they blow and shatter).

The EU with these sorts of regulations is thinking about the national, and EU wide picture.
And as a side effect having such a regulation means that your next kettle gets better with little or no additional cost to you the increased efficiency isn't just on the premium models, but on pretty much every model.

It's like the low energy bulbs, originally they were extremely expensive, then as they became the standard the price dropped whilst at the same time they got better as more money was spent improving them.
The same is happening now with LED lighting, the prices are dropping whilst the designs are getting better because the competition to sell them is increasing. It's also resulting in things like your car getting better lights that need less maintinance and if you leave the car door slightly open won't drain the battery over night (you can replace your cabin lights with LED versions that are a straight swap, and more expensive models of car are going pretty much completely over to LED bulbs from the factory).

The EU regulations also resulted in things like your car becoming a lot safer, as it was the EU that required ABS and airbags on all models (and because of it becoming a requirement they went from a fairly expensive extra to much lower general increase in the cost of the car which got less over time).

kwikbreaks

redpete wrote: »

Why? Politicians have just learnt that you can convince people to do what you want them to by repeating lies and half truths frequently and loudly enough.

I thought that they had learned the precise opposite - they can't force people to do what they want by repeating lies.

kwikbreaks

As the UK manufactures very little and nobody is going to make UK only less efficient models for us to import I can't see any changes in our vacuum cleaners, light bulbs, etc.

Although I'm not an EU fan I don't regard all of the regulations to be bad, just some of them, and I'd like the politicians I vote into power to have the ability to change any they want to.

Pennywise

Nilrem wrote: »

The EU regulations also resulted in things like your car becoming a lot safer, as it was the EU that required ABS and airbags on all models (and because of it becoming a requirement they went from a fairly expensive extra to much lower general increase in the cost of the car which got less over time).

The UK govt could have chosen to apply car safety legislation itself without being told to by the EU, in fact, outside the EU, it may have chosen to bring in even stricter/safer rules.

bap98189

Pennywise wrote: »

The UK govt could have chosen to apply car safety legislation itself without being told to by the EU, in fact, outside the EU, it may have chosen to bring in even stricter/safer rules.

Yes but they didn't. And let's be honest when it comes to anything related to the environment or safety, the EU has proved to be far more progressive then any UK government.

Nilrem

Pennywise wrote: »

The UK govt could have chosen to apply car safety legislation itself without being told to by the EU, in fact, outside the EU, it may have chosen to bring in even stricter/safer rules.

It would be very very unlikely car manufacturers would have made specific models for the UK with major changes to the structure without it costing a lot more for the consumer (it would have to be a completely different model and tested specifically).

It's cheaper for the car manufacturers to include wiring harnesses and secondary fittings in all cars for optional extras (sometimes to the point where you can buy a part for £50 to give you the extra that would have cost £500). or to simply include what were optional extras in the base model after a while as the cost is less to them than having some with and some without.

Long gone are the days when you had different specifications for different countries to protect the local industry in one country or another (the right hand drive option is relatively simple if the car is designed with it in mind).
From memory with car standards they've basically gone with the highest ones from any member country each time they've implemented a change.

Other examples of the EU being "nasty" are your mobile phone and tablet.
Unless you're an Idevice user the chances are your mobile devices all take a standard USB mini or micro connector and can recharge from any standard usb port (although some won't charge fast enough to keep up with the power used when on if you use older usb chargers).
That's a change the EU required because it was getting stupid when even if you stuck with say Nokia or Samsung you needed a different cable/charger for different models.

A good number of the EU directives and rules are on that line, things that we as a single country couldn't have made the companies do without it costing a lot more for the consumer as country specific models are always more expensive, which is also one of the reasons so many mains devices these days use a "non captive" power cable that can be swapped to the right regional one as the device is boxed up in country specific packaging.

kwikbreaks

I'm all in favour of cost reductions when implementing EU environmental regulations. Apart from those employed by that great EU vehicle manufacturer Volkswagen.....