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
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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
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EUSSR
http://youtu.be/KjWf5gQZ898
As they get complaints, their next rule will the outlawing of carpets on the floor. After all, they only trap dirt and require too much vacuum time and energy. They also aren’t as effective for insulation on a floor as they would be on the ceiling or the walls. So the next rule will be for all carpets to be hung on walls and for all carpet manufacturers to add wall hooks. Whether they allow for holes to be cut for windows … hmmmm. Maybe they’ll allow for flaps that can be folded over or rolled up but no full cutouts.
There’s also an EU limit on the maximum allowed memory bandwith of a PC graphics card.
I forget what it was, these are just the EU lunatics doing what they’re doing.
Russia, China, Brasil etc will SO smoke the self-mutilating West it won’t be funny; that’s when the pitchforks will come out.
http://www.thefoxisblack.com/blogimages//matt-groening-life-in-hell.jpg
(“Mistakes Were Made”)
Modern governments exist for one reason; to keep the little guy little and enhance the power and wealth of those who already have the power and wealth. Even the most egalitarian and libertarian constitutional governments have become subverted over time to the purpose of fulfilling the wishes of the masters at the expense of everyone else.
This latest move by the Eurocrats is not pointless, it is simply a statement by the Barons, asserting themselves.
This kind of insanity does not happen only in the EU but also in the United States except that we are not told about it. My air conditioner failed and I went to P.C. Richards to get a replacement. It turned out that all the air conditioners sold today cannot be set to cool the air lower than 64 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a stealth rule that has appeared within the last few years without any public announcement. These idiots do it because that will reduce electricity use which will in turn reduce the amount of fossil fuels used to generate electricity which will then produce less carbon dioxide which will then prevent the greenhouse warming from burning up the world. Insanity is the right word for it because reducing global temperature by a millionth of a degree in distant future is not an excuse for changing the way our people want to live. And by the way, this reduction is optimistic because there is no such thing as a greenhouse warming. It stopped 17 years ago and that is the end of it.
Maybe these suckers are jealous they can’t compete with market suckers. (sorry, couldn’t help it)
I’m setting up my Kirby smuggling routes right now.
Wattsupwiththis,
Got a buddy from here in Northeast Texas who goes each year this time in late Aug. to Glaicer Park to cool off. (it has not been that hot here this year). In any event he called me at 8:00 this morning Texas time and he had big snow falling on his pop up camper. He is in the most North area of the park.
So, knowing of the webcams in Glaicer I pulled them up, went and looked at each of them until the most Northern one (Goat Haunt) cam and all black. Out of service.
Odd but it is what it is.
Went and looked at the lowest temp rec. for the park ,,,, 26 F for August.
From what I can find it may be lower tonight or tomorrow night, hope they do not have the temp instrument off line for that event also.
M Courtney says:
August 23, 2014 at 3:33 am
“The logic behind this ban seems lacking.
But I guess the idea is that banning anything makes people think it’s haram and so encourages people to think about other forms of energy usage.
What I’m thinking is that flying Eurocrats around is wasteful of energy.
They should be detained in one small place to work more closely together in an ever closer union..”
A black hole in Calcutta sounds about right!
Want some fun, go to an Earth First meeting find a way to get the floor and talk about leaving all the lights on daytime in a down town area to help the power factor and save electrical power use.
Now that is a giant black hole sucking sound as the throw you out on your petard.
Peter Miller says:
August 22, 2014 at 11:36 pm
This is what happens when you have a monstrous, overpaid, underemployed bureaucracy, who are accountable to no one.
These people in Brussels believe they have to be seen to be doing something, so they come up with with rafts of stupid rules and regulations. It is like a treadmill, the BS emanating from the EU’s central bureaucracy never stops.
Well, that’s right; but to be exact, this is what happens with any-and-all governmental bodies. You could substitute any government in place of “EU” and your sentences would still be true, sadly. Even the most accountable elected governments will always use their limited time to increase their own power and grow their size. The reason this is inevitable is that governments always attract the most power-hungry psychopaths that society can produce.
My source in the (unelected) EU Council of Ministers says that all new vacuum cleaners will be embedded with an internet connection, linked to the Met Office. Apparently, the new generation of cleaners will be programmed to only switch on when the wind is blowing.
/sarc
ralph
Anti-human Malthusian psychotics are running the asylum.
Quite simple, go and buy a professional – as opposed to domestic – model from a company who supplies them to such as professional cleaning and car valeting companies, in the same way as we can still buy incandescent bulbs as trade heavy duty items.
hmmmm. There is an upside to this. I would rather like not having to vacuum at all. Damn thing should have never been invented in the first place, let alone rugs.
In the US, our illustrious Secretary of State would tell you that high power vacuum cleaners are a greater threat than international terrorism. The EU obviously knows this too.
Believe it or not, a local guy has opened up a beer, butts, and bulbs store. He sells beer, smokes, and lightbulbs (the real kind). Steady business.
“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.” – WUWT
Yes sir.
Here in the US, it gets a little trickier because the same EU policies are being foisted on the companies behind the scenes. I was going to offer this new video by Walmart as an example, but it has since been edited. Originally it claimed that “government officials” and “non profits” would now be helping Walmart “focus on the customer.” In that case, RIP Walmart, a once great company. Mandating worthless vacuums on boards of companies, and then saying, “Look, a market solution!” is what concerns me.
The reason this company did so much to help people who are otherwise losing their purchasing power to rising energy and fuel costs, is because Walmart ships from any where to bring the lowest price.
And I remind you that it is our privately held shipping and trucking in the US that is always there first to bring in supplies when there has been a storm or earthquake, long before a politician comes in to get his picture taken and declare an emergency. Companies like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Walmart are also flexible in anticipating supplies for areas hit.
ref:
“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.” – WUWT
Is it the EU, or is it the German Empire? Angela Merkel selected EU Comissioner Juncker. “The whole thing has been the most extraordinary stitch-up!”
ref:
So a less powerful vacuum will be used more and longer to do the same job, and will actually use more energy. This is a perfect example of the insanity of the left and the global warming movement. How long until they make rules limiting the horsepower of vehicles? You can make a stronger argument for that than this one.
Narrow-minded bureaucrats and their running dog lackies in the enviro-NGO business don’t care about the environmental costs that are implied when human lives are cut a bit shorter due to marginal changes in mortality due to decreased domestic cleanliness.
Now, of course, they do care about marginal changes in mortality, at least as indicated by their statistical models when it comes to justifying the cost of new air pollution controls. No matter what, every clampdown will save “millions” of lives.
co2fan says:
August 22, 2014 at 10:09 pm
“110v vacuums on a 10A circuit are limited to 1000W.”
Thanks for that perspective. Dissipated my umbrage for a moment. But, then I read…
ConTrari says:
August 22, 2014 at 10:46 pm
“Max 1600 W is just the beginning, next step is max 900 W, to ble implemented i 2017. “
Frog in the pot. Starting in 2017, Europeans will just vacuum longer, and have dirtier carpets. Hairshirt, futile enviro-craziness at its best.
Meanwhile, one of the stupid paper bags that the powers-that-be mandated which kill trees, require boatloads more energy and chemical nastiness to produce and transport, and leech toxic chemicals into the ground upon decomposition, tore open on me again, busting a now wasted jar of spaghetti sauce which I had to use chemicals and paper towels to clean up.
I really, really, really hate these useless busybodies making ignorant laws to foist their neuroses on everybody else.
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Look on the bright side.
At least their neuroses gave us such classics as Sharknado and Sharknado 2.
I don’t agree with over regulation, but I have seen simple barrel vacuum cleaners go from 900w to 1200w to 2000w over the decades. It is a selling point, we went from the loudness war in audio to the power war in vacuums.
Dyson agrees
Q: What’s the difference between a 1600w vacuum cleaner and the EU?
A: After September, the EU will still suck.