I am sure most of you are aware that the EU has recently introduced restrictions regarding the maximum power of vacuum cleaners that can be purchased. It may well have been expected that Euro-sceptic pseudo-buffoon Boris Johnson would aim a sideswipe at this legislation, saying on national radio “…what we’re trying to do in Europe is stop the loony approach of Brussels that believes in over-regulating to the extent where they try to ban vacuum cleaners that are too powerful…” but he was also voicing views akin to those I have heard expressed by sensible people. Those you would expect to instinctively know that a high overall power rating does not necessarily a good appliance make.
I must admit that when I was working on designing new widgets at the last Temple of Mammon it always amazed me that we would flirt with decreasing efficiency so that we could claim a higher Watts rating on the packaging. I even bounced the idea off our tame fluffies that if we could demonstrate an equal performance for a lower wattage then we could promote our products as being more efficient – not only offering a cheaper running cost but chiming with the more ecologically aware times that we are living in.
Such suggestions were met with a sympathetic smile and slow shaking of the head indicating that I was a naive simpleton to believe such a strategy even had a chance of succeeding. No, conventional wisdom dictated that the average consumer was an unsophisticated soul who would be swayed more than anything by a big number writ large, and who would have no actual idea of what it meant in real terms. Rather than applying the thought processes of the rational individual they would invariably react with Pavlovian certainty.
However I kept faith in the public and held onto a belief that they were better than these views allowed. Surely they would see where real value lay rather than un-contextualised irrelevance? Sadly it would appear that I have now been proven wrong.
People need to move their myopic methods of evaluating items and, if we are serious about reducing energy needs, it has to be across the board on everything we own. There needs to be a way of forcing a new system for looking at what we buy, one that politicians and civic leaders should understand and get behind for all our sakes.
It could start small and spread in both scope and application. Perhaps new legislation…limiting the power of particular household goods…. for instance?
When I was married (more years ago than even I can recall well almost -50 next year!) we were presented with a hand-pushed carpet sweeper. The power sources (two and alternating) are now much older and creaking a bit in the lower and upper registers but ‘she who must be obeyed still wields a mean tongue to get her junior power source into action. The same for our fabric/clothes drier (which uses a rope and a pole and the heat from the sun (which is free) and several pieces of high-technology-we call them ‘PEGS’ to attach the drying clothes. We call it a solar-powered wind assisted moisture extraction unit.
I believe both young and older Engineers will be getting the message. “Do for 10p what any fool can do for £1.”
Japan has the ‘top-runner’ scheme to do precisely this, for energy-saving, emissions control, and better engineering; the EU has the ECODESIGN directive also aimed at these objectives, and there will be more, all aimed at reducing energy consumption, gaining market share elsewhere, and lessening the likelihood of electricity brown-outs (as predicted by doom-and-gloom Owen Patterson), helping us to get to our CO2 targets, and perhaps reducing the demand for power stations, wind farms, etc. What’s not to like?
Having recently shopped for a new vac I noticed that some boxes carried a value “watts suction” and the actual electrical wattage was absent or hidden in smsll print. Has a new unit been created to get around the dilemma described above?
Buy a Numatic. (Henry and friends) ‘Real’ 1200 watt motors.
Who says reducing the POWER RATING will reduce the energy consumed?
The most obvious case being the electric kettle, which as is well known puts huge grid load in commercial TV breaks, hence part of the need for pumped storage.
If a kettle is too weedy/small in power, the user will walk away, remembering the adage about watched kettles, and will probably have to boil it up again on return.
So, a kettle should logically use the maximum power allowed from an electricity outlet.
(And, there should be a lot more kettles sold, capable of boiling just ONE CUP of water – now that would be real efficiency).
Typical (foreign) politicians meddling in things they don’t understand.
First, everything else being equal, without efficiency improvements it will just take much longer to do the cleaning, using more electricity
Many EU houses are limited to around 16A supply, so perhaps it might help them to prevent overload.
But we have powerful British supplies, typically more than 60A, so give us the oportunity get the job done faster using less energy and to get on with our lives.
As it says on the back of the 4x4s “One life – live it” , or should the message to the EU be “One life – get one”
There’s always two sides to every argument. I can see both of them where efficiency and eficacy of vacuum cleaners and their ilk are concerned. Kettles are different, of course. The relationship between kw in and heating/ boiling water is simple. It’s a direct relationship that we all learned in school physics. Air movement can be made more efficient.
Rules and regulations can work. Example: When you get to 70 your driving licence gets downgraded automatically unless you jump through a few hoops. You cannot now drive anything over 3500kg. Now, magically, modern motor homes are generally under that mass. Up until a few years ago even medium size units were over. Market forces driven by legislation.
If there is proposed legislation limiting the power of kettles then that line discussion is valid. If not then its a mere straw man.
With this in mind, why are electric cars being pushed so hard?
Because the batteries are too small to complete the journey unaided…..?
As most Vacuum Cleaners are still using the same old universal motor design that’s been around for ages (presumably because it’s cheap to produce), the change in legislation seems a good thing. I’m sure that given sufficient ‘prodding’ our manufacturers will ‘suddenly’ discover that there are more-efficient and quieter motor designs that they can use! So that we end up with better products on the market and less power being wasted.
Up to now, there is little real choice for consumers anyway, save some (expensive) products from a British designer, who struggled for years trying to get manufacturers interested in his own Vacuum Cleaner designs, ended up getting them made himself, and whose products are now widely imitated.
It takes a maverick (or a change in legislation) to shake up complacency.