New EU energy rules for TVs and other household gadgets

TheVoice said:
Microwave clocks are inherently useful, though you can turn a lot of them off these days. Not going to save a particularly useful amount of energy though.
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this is the thing people never get, like the unplugging mobile chargers thing yes it will make little if any difference to the individual bill but imagine if every one in the EU or the world did it? That is the point in this legislation!
 
itchy said:
I pay the bills so I will use as much as I like! Screw the EU pain in the backside they are. :(
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Yes let us consumers make a rule that all these EU Energy experts have got to drive nothing bigger then a two seater smart car and use nothing bigger then a power saving 15" monitor.....:p
 
a1ex2001 said:
this is the thing people never get, like the unplugging mobile chargers thing yes it will make little if any difference to the individual bill but imagine if every one in the EU or the world did it? That is the point in this legislation!
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No, I fully 'get' it, but there are also plenty of other more energy-inefficient items, practices and users that they could be chasing after. Get the big users under control first.
 
Reminds me of a few years back when there was a climate change summit in China which Tony Blair was heading. The company I worked for at the time (energy certifications / calculation company) got asked to figure out the carbon cost of the conference: flights, car travel, taxis, electric, gas, water etc etc etc for the whole thing for all the delegates.

In the end they chose to not publicise our findings, because they were terrible and by far one of the biggest contributors to the carbon impact of the conference was Tony Blair himself, travelling around in his private jet (the less people on a plane the greater the carbon per person).

I'm sure all the meetings to discuss this will probably use more energy than they'll save turning a few routers off :p.
 
TheVoice said:
What's the point of having a switch on the charger when you can just use the switch on the socket?
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mattyprice4004 said:
There's these new fangled plug sockets that have a switch built in - you may not have seen them, they've only been around for the last 50 years or so.
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Not that useful when I have a 4 way extension plugged into the main socket. Two of the devices I could do with turning off but the other one needs to stay on. I don't want to have to buy a new extension with individual switches on each socket.
 
Makes sense, though I still can't see the point as phone chargers etc use no measurable (at least, not with a home power meter device) amount of electricity when plugged in but not charging.
 
a1ex2001 said:
this is the thing people never get, .....
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The thing people never seem to get is that it is actually very difficult to "Waste" energy in the home.

(Well, In the UK anyway)

Consider.

William is sitting in his den watching TV on his home cinema system. (which consumes an average of 300Watts) The room is lit with a 100watt filament bulb. The room is heated electrically by a thermostatically controlled 1Kw heater with a load factor of 50%.

Concerned that he is "wasting energy" by using an old fashioned filiment bulb, he gets up and swaps it out for an LED one.

Later, his conscience is troubled, while watching Ice Age: The meltdown, that his entertainment might be contributing to the demise of Polar bears. So he switches off his home cinema (Carefully unplugging it so that it doesn't waste energy by going into standby) and reads a book instead.

Now, here's the question.

How much energy has William saved by his actions?

The Answer of course is None!

The other answer is that, in the UK anyway, it is rare for some sort of background heat not to be welcome. even at the height of summer the evenings can still be chilly.

The waste heat from domestic appliances is not too bad a way of contributing towards this.

The opportunities for genuine energy savings are actually extremely limited and are only likely to result if people are willing to realise them by living in colder homes.

This is of course not a new thing. It has been recognised since the seventies that "efficiency improvements" such as double glazing, central heating, cavity wall insulation etc rarely result in lower fuel costs since the improvements are used to enhance standard of living (Living in a warmer house) rather than to reduce consumption (Staying as cold as before but using less fuel)

Measures like this will do little to actually reduce energy consumption in UK homes while at the same time they will introduce another layer of cost and complexity into domestic appliances.

Of course, the situation is likely to be different in other climates (Say Spain or Italy) but here in the UK marginal reductions in the standby consumption of small appliances will make very little difference in practice.
 
Orionaut said:
The thing people never seem to get is that it is actually very difficult to "Waste" energy in the home.

(Well, In the UK anyway)

Consider.

William is sitting in his den watching TV on his home cinema system. (which consumes an average of 300Watts) The room is lit with a 100watt filament bulb. The room is heated electrically by a thermostatically controlled 1Kw heater with a load factor of 50%.

Concerned that he is "wasting energy" by using an old fashioned filiment bulb, he gets up and swaps it out for an LED one.

Later, his conscience is troubled, while watching Ice Age: The meltdown, that his entertainment might be contributing to the demise of Polar bears. So he switches off his home cinema (Carefully unplugging it so that it doesn't waste energy by going into standby) and reads a book instead.

Now, here's the question.

How much energy has William saved by his actions?

The Answer of course is None!

The other answer is that, in the UK anyway, it is rare for some sort of background heat not to be welcome. even at the height of summer the evenings can still be chilly.

The waste heat from domestic appliances is not too bad a way of contributing towards this.

The opportunities for genuine energy savings are actually extremely limited and are only likely to result if people are willing to realise them by living in colder homes.

This is of course not a new thing. It has been recognised since the seventies that "efficiency improvements" such as double glazing, central heating, cavity wall insulation etc rarely result in lower fuel costs since the improvements are used to enhance standard of living (Living in a warmer house) rather than to reduce consumption (Staying as cold as before but using less fuel)

Measures like this will do little to actually reduce energy consumption in UK homes while at the same time they will introduce another layer of cost and complexity into domestic appliances.

Of course, the situation is likely to be different in other climates (Say Spain or Italy) but here in the UK marginal reductions in the standby consumption of small appliances will make very little difference in practice.
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This is all because there is not enough nuclear power stations in the UK. Nothing more.
 
MrMoonX said:
Yes I can't see what could go wrong with lots of nuclear reactors on a tiny island :rolleyes:
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We aren't a tiny island, and reactors don't tend to just blow up if they are designed, built and maintained properly.

The biggest issue is what to do with the waste material, and well, we have the North for that.
 
V F said:
No mention of electric heaters… Those things are awful. Heating failed over a year ago that fell on a holiday and had to rely on those for 4 days. Until someone could come out to fix it.
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Electric heaters are extremely energy efficient, I can't think of any household device more efficient off the top of my head.
 
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