Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury : What a furore! Have you ever heard such a fuss in your life? It was all over vacuum cleaners and similar electrical appliances and a new European Union (EU) directive. Some sections of the popular press have had a field day, issuing scare stories that seem to have caused many people to go out and buy a new vacuum cleaner, whether they needed it or not!
So what is this all about? Simply an EU directive which will reduce the power of appliances but will not reduce their efficiency. Makers of vacuum cleaners, fridges, washing machines and televisions have known about this directive for years and have been working towards producing appliances that operate with less power, make less noise and cost less to run. Over the next few years, the power will be reduced on smaller appliances such as hair driers, toasters, blenders, and power tools so that they use up to 20-30% less electricity.
The whole idea behind this directive is, of course, to reduce Europe’s overall energy consumption. These new regulations are expected to save 19 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity by 2020. This amount of electricity is more than that generated by several British power stations and all our wind farms last year. This is only similar to the development of the motor car. Our present day cars have lighter bodies which do not rot and far more efficient engines which produce more power but use less fuel than ever before
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