Vacuum cleaners downgraded by the EU to tackle climate change in Europe
Story submitted by P. Wilson
Anyone wanting to buy a powerful vacuum cleaner has only 10 days left to be certain of getting one – following new EU rules that come in next month.
From 1 September, companies in the EU will be banned from making or importing vacuum cleaners above 1600 watts.
Hoover – based in South Wales – said that most of its cleaners were in that category.
It has been replacing its models since July with less powerful versions, but a few are still left on the shelves.
The new European rules are part of the EU’s energy efficiency directive, designed to help tackle climate change.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28878432
==============================================================
I don’t see the point of this. Vacuum cleaners run for a few minutes each week. The amount of energy saved in this transient use of the appliance will be miniscule in the scheme of things.
I visualize a black market developing for more powerful vaccum cleaners, an aftermarket retrofit to replace motors with more powerful ones, and a lot of purchases made outside of the EU.
One more reason to dump the EU- they are going to make criminals out of average people who just want to keep their home clean. – Anthony
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
We all remember the results of “low flow” shower faucets – people simply took longer showers.
We can pretty safely assume that weaker vacuums will simply require longer run times.
“Sasha says:
August 23, 2014 at 1:05 am
This is all the first part of a plan by some unelected EUrocrats. There are similar bans on the way for water pumps and tumble dryers.”
What’s interesting about the dryers is that the dumbed-down energy labeled have been tweaked(erm, maybe twerked) so that condenser and heat-pump dryers are listed as being much more efficient than they actually are, so that people who only look at the letters, and not the actual specs are fooled. Forced-air dryers may well send heat up the flue, but they also send lint and moisture up as well, which is usually helpful, especially in summer. As the ambient temperature goes up, the efficiency of condenser and heat-pump dryers goes down, dramatically so at around 30-35 degrees C. Add to this the increased complexity and maintenance costs and the average consumer loses again. For folks who can’t (or don’t want to) bore through a wall, there are portable condensers available – a bit of hassle, but cheaper and better than these overpriced condenser/heat pump units.
I’m not sure which water pumps you mean, but if you’re talking about pumps for furnaces/radiators, they are FAR more expensive (at least the ones that are “demand-driven”) and run the risk of seizing up if they’re not run every so often.
We have a 1400-watt Miele which cleans pretty well, but since it has a HEPA filter (we all have allergies), it could use a little more power (shades of Tim Allen 🙂 ). I haven’t seen beater bar attachments here in Germany…that would go a long way toward cleaning, but then it would probably throw the dust around too, negating the benefits of the HEPA filtering….sigh….
Highest wattage I’ve seen here is 2200 watts, which I think is overkill…kind of a “my motor is bigger” sort of marketing competition. On the other hand, 900 watts probably wouldn’t clean up a wood or tile floor, let alone a long pile rug…..
Hmmm….where’s the carpet and floor-covering lobby? These vacuum bans might put a dent in carpet sales once people figure out that 900 watts won’t clean a normal rug….
Seems the only thing the EU can do is micro-manage and raise taxes….and, the EUrocrats pay no taxes themselves…plus, they get an enormous per-diem allowance….I think it’s around 300 euro per day….if we unemployed them, we’d all save a ton of money….
Just found it – from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10141790/Fury-caught-on-film-as-MEPs-sign-in-and-slope-off.html:
“MEPs are automatically given £91,000 in daily subsistence and in “general expenditure” expenses a year without having to provide any receipts or proof of expenditure. On top of that, the EU parliament’s 754 MEPs each have a parliamentary assistance allowance worth almost £220,000 each a year. ”
Wonder what or whom they are assisting – certainly not us….
“The EU, Climate change, and the giant sucking sound”
If they use less powerful vacuum cleaners, would the giant sucking sound be quieter?
It would be great if reducing the power of a vacuum was a foreshadowing of the EU.
The average “savings” realized will be in the realm of about 2 watts per hour or say 60 watts per day.
That’s based on an averaged annual savings of about 20kwh. (calculated from http://www.sust-it.net/vacuum-cleaners.php )
In other words, the equivalent of turning off one 60 watt bulb for one hour a day….that ought to help global climate change…this brilliant “idea” must have come to someone during Earth Hour….
http://ak.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/41847/preview/stock-footage-medium-shot-of-tungsten-light-bulb-being-turned-off-to-black.jpg
The architect of this law, Marlene Holzner, couldn’t care less about EU consumers. Just look at her track record. (These people live in their own perfect little world.)
EU Biofuels Targets to Cost $166 Billion
European Union policies to promote the use of biofuels for transportation will cost consumers as much as 126 billion euros ($166 billion) between now and 2020, two environmental groups said. The fuels, gasoline substitutes derived from plants, probably won’t cut greenhouse gases because forests are chopped down to make way for biofuel plantations, Friends of the Earth and ActionAid said in an e-mailed statement. The European Commission said that while biofuels cost more than fossil fuels, it’s “reasonable” for motorists to pay extra.
The EU aims to get 10% of its transport energy from biofuels, hydrogen and renewable power by 2020. The target aims to help cut the bloc’s emissions 20% from 1990 levels. The lobby groups said those goals will add a cumulative 94 billion euros to 126 billion euros just to fuel costs by 2020.
“Consumers and taxpayers are paying a premium for this policy, which achieves very little and we think causes a lot of damage to the environment as well as hunger and poverty,” Robbie Blake, biofuels campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said in a phone interview. “What we really need to be focused on is reducing transport energy use by improving energy efficiency in cars and through better public transport.”
The EU Response
EU energy spokeswoman Marlene Holzner said today in an email that the bio-fuels target may increase cereal prices by as much as 6% and rapeseed costs by as much as 10%. The commission is monitoring the effects on food prices. She said efficiency improvements alone won’t achieve the carbon cuts needed, and that pursuing renewables is necessary.
Holzner said “Most renewable energy is at present more expensive than fossil energy. It is important to recognize the financing for renewable energy as growth-enhancing expenditure that will provide greater return in the future. It is reasonable to let the consumers of, in this case, motor fuels, pay for the costs. Replacing gasoline with biofuels in the EU cuts emissions 21%, after land use changes have been taken into account.”
I can see it now….some bright spark is going to figure out how to convert one of those obnoxious leaf-blowers into a vacuum cleaner…hmmm….gas-powered vacuum cleaners, that’s the ticket…..not…
Build a worse vacuum cleaner and the world will beat a path to your competitors door.
Maybe the new rechargeable battery powered items are the way out.
Unintended consequences. Old vacuum cleaners used 30 minutes per week replaced with battery ones on 24 hour, 7 day charge(less than 900Watt).
Well, we’re moving toward a Rube Goldberg energy grid (http://www.dep.anl.gov/rube/), why not Rube Goldberg vacuum cleaners?
We could start with a lawn mower engine….
There is going to be a market for assemby sets,
afaik these are not(yet) prohibited.
Regarding all this Dyson nonsense: cyclones are an old technology that is ineffective at collecting fine particles. Sure it looks like they are doing something when you see all the big chinks spinning around, but the majority of dust is fine, and if the vacuum doesn’t also have a filter all the fine dust is blown back into the room–no cleaning actually gets done. The bag vacuums are therefore more efficient because they actual trap the dust.
This is like the idiot idea of Energy Stars for washing machine because they won’t let you do a hot water wash (always blend) and reduce the water used for rinsing, or removing the last trivial but necessary trace of phosphate from detergent–the ruling class is just making us the “unwashed masses” they always believed we were.
Nothing the government does anymore makes any sense and there is nothing we can do to stop it. It is all only down hill from here.
First they came for my 3 gallon per flush toilet and I said nothing…..
We are running out of space here in Sweden! So now in addition to all the incandescent light bulbs we have stockpiled, we have two Bosch 2400w vacuums in boxes(& vacuum cleaner bags) that we are hoping to not need to start tapping into for a decade or two.
The point is control.
There is an interesting book called something like “The Chinese Western.” A series of short stories about life in Western China back in the days of Mao. Very interesting. In one story, the central govt decreed that all dogs were to be killed to save food (Yes, the socialist paradise was starving.) One villager said that was just nonsense. Nobody fed their dogs anything but scraps humans wouldn’t eat. This was just one more way the govt was exerting control over the people.
It was a very sad story about an old man without wife or children. One day, a young pretty woman appeared in their village, an internal refugee from another region of the country. It was the tradition that when crops failed in an area, the people would leave seeds in their homes for the next planting, seal their homes, and wander, looking for food anywhere and accepting jobs or charity to survive until the next planting could be done. Breaking into a sealed house was just not done. The Chinese are civilized. Well, they would also bury their toddlers up to their waists in dirt and leave them on the side of the road, hoping somebody with food would come by and adopt them. Again, life in the socialist paradise.
This old man had only a dog for a companion, a beloved friend for sure. He took the girl in, fed her and housed her. In return she provided him with cheerful, youthful company and keep his house. He was very happy. During this time, the cadres came to his village and killed his dog. After 6 months, one day the girl, after preparing him his favorite meal and cleaning the house meticulously, left the village to return to her own village without saying goodbye
The old man killed himself.
But, the important thing is control.
That regime collapsed from internal forces. I suspect ours will, too. And, few people who are aware of its excesses will mourn it,
People buy more powerful cleaners so they could spend less time cleaning. Now the EU wants them to spend more time in the home for nothing.
In the meantime sales of vacuum cleaners in China show solid growth.
http://www.euromonitor.com/vacuum-cleaners-in-china/report
In India growth in vacuum cleaners is expected to improve from 7% in 2013 to 9% in 2015
http://www.euromonitor.com/vacuum-cleaners-in-india/report
Only authoritarian governments can tell you how much energy you can use . That is why they oblige you to install the SMART METER so they know what device you are using.
the green police.
http://youtu.be/Ml54UuAoLSo
What did audi know that most of us didn’t even think about.
next on the list
Air Conditioning (home + car)
Hair dryers + Clothes Dryers
Electric cooking.
You just wonder why most premier league football games are played at night with the huge amount of energy needed to light the stadium. Talking about footprints.
This is like the EPAs flush twice toilet regs.
But I can see the EU’s point – Nature abhors a vacuum.
In the 20’s through the 40’s many vacuum cleaner manufacturers made a model that had a heavy fly-wheel on the impeller shaft driven by gears that were driven by the wheels, like some of the kids friction driven cars you can still buy today. You pushed it back and forth, quickly, a few times and then, just the process of moving the cleaner back and forth to sweep kept both the brush rotating and the vacuum pump working. My mother and grandmother had one. Perhaps they should dig out the old blue-prints and start making them again. However, no way would I want to sweep my whole house in one day with that machine!
I just watched the Formula 1 qualifying. 2 Mercedes fossil fuel powered cars are top of the grid. Maybe next year in Europe these engines will be banned and only battery powered cars will be used. But petrol-heads are not like vacuum machine housewives, they are likely to riot.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/deprived-of-their-race-angry-fans-decide-to-have-a-riot-20100320-qnaq.html
They could probably use less energy by killing all of those OCDs who actually use a vacuum more than once a week.
You know this would’ve simply been so much simpler if they simply outlawed dust. Those simpletons.
This action of the EU was for nothing.
Growth of vacuum cleaner sales around the world.
http://www.euromonitor.com/vacuum-cleaners
Other household appliances
http://www.euromonitor.com/consumer-appliances
John Of Cloverdale WA, Australia says:
August 23, 2014 at 7:07 am
“I just watched the Formula 1 qualifying. 2 Mercedes fossil fuel powered cars are top of the grid. Maybe next year in Europe these engines will be banned and only battery powered cars will be used. But petrol-heads are not like vacuum machine housewives, they are likely to riot.”
Ahead of the 2014 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix, Shell invited Scuderia Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen to demonstrate ultra energy efficient Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) vehicles on the historic Spa-Francorchamps track.
The Scuderia Ferrari duo took to the track alongside students from across Europe to showcase the initiative that challenges students from around the world to design, build, and test ultra energy-efficient vehicles. The teams included the French champions from Lycée Saint-Joseph La Joliverie, Instituto de Educación Secundaria Alto Nalón (Spain), University College London (UK), Brandenburgische Technische Universität (Germany), plus Belgian students from the Université de Mons and Université de Liège.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/some-of-the-world-s-most-energy-efficient-vehicles-are-shown-to-alonso-and-r-ikk-nen/
rogerknights says:
August 23, 2014 at 2:35 am
“This sucks.”
Yes, but not as well.
“Meet the new boss.”