The Climate Police are coming.
In order to cool the global climate, the European Commission has decided, with infinite wisdom, that companies shall no longer be allowed to make or import vacuums with motors above 1600 watts — which is more than half of the vacuums on the market. These are climate-dangerous machines. They couldn’t just put a health warning with pics of drowning polar bears on the 2200W ones. They must be Verboten! The new rules start on September 1st. I’m sure if they could, they’d arrange a buy-back and amnesty program for high powered vacuums too.
In EUspeak, vacuums are about to get better! Apparently, they will use less energy, save money and pick up more dust too, all that was needed was regulation. (Why didn’t they think of it before?)
Consumers warned to “act quickly” before top-rated powerful vacuum cleaners sell out forever
The European Commission claims that its new rules, which are intended to help tackle climate change by cutting Europe’s energy usage, will mean consumers “get better vacuum cleaners than ever before”.
The first vacuum was made in 1860. So after 150 years of fine tuning vacuum motors, at last the gifted bureaucrat has arrived to set the engineers and customers straight.
EUspeak describes the marvel of how lower wattage equals the same power, and will cost less too:
In a blog last year, European Commission spokesman Marlene Holzner wrote: “Vacuum cleaners will use less energy for the same performance – how much dust they pick up. This will help consumers to save money and make Europe as a whole use less energy.”
(Just think: poor German engineers laboured under the delusion that power was measured in Watts. 😉 ) If less watts is good, then even less is even better. In 3 years vacuums will be cut down to 900W.
The average power of a vacuum on the market in Europe at the time was 1,800 watts. This will have to be halved within the next three years, as the limit of 1,600 watts will be reduced to just 900 watts from September 2017.
And I’m wondering if two 900W vacuums can be used in series? Can you buy modular vacuums, plug them together…?
But imagine that, it’s another free market failure. The dumb punters kept buying big inefficient vacuums that did not work well. Mere citizens, it seems, do not have the intellect to know when their carpets are sucked properly, or their money wasted. Now thanks to the Glorious Insight of Politicrats that vexacious problem will be gone. Though consumer groups like Witch? claimed that many of the banned models were the most popular and rated as “best buys”. (What would they know?) Mere moms and dads hoovering after the kids for decades are amateurs. The EU commissars know how to vacuum!
…Which? said that many of the models that its reviewers rate as the best on the market will fall foul of the rules.
Of seven “best buy” ratings awarded by its vacuum cleaner reviewers since January 2013, five of them have motors of more than 1,600 watts, it said.
The limitation of wattage comes in a package of other regulations, some of which may or may not be sensible. But, as always, it gets packaged together in radiant auras — there is never any quid pro quo, no cost-benefits and nothing is compromised:
Ms Holzer said: “As a result of the new EU ecodesign and labelling regulations, consumers will also get better vacuum cleaners. In the past there was no legislation on vacuum cleaners and companies could sell poorly performing vacuum cleaners.
“Now, vacuum cleaners that use a lot of energy, that pick up dust poorly, emit too much dust at the exhaust of the vacuum cleaner, are noisy or break down pre-maturely will not be allowed on the market anymore. This means a better cleaning experience and less time and money spent on vacuum cleaning.”
BBC news discusses the fallout:
Hoover – based in South Wales – said that most of its cleaners were in that [banned] category.
It has been replacing its models since July with less powerful versions, but a few are still left on the shelves.
Elements of the directive – known as 2009/125/EC – are being challenged by the Dyson group.
So Europeans may have dustier carpets in the future, and large European appliance makers will presumably be opening factories in Asia (if they haven’t already done so). One of the few things we know for sure from this directive is that if the rest of the world wants big vacuums, they won’t be buying European made ones.
More importantly I wonder, how did this happen so fast? Seventy years ago Europeans were fighting for freedom, now they’ve giving it away. It’s like the heady days of soviet shopping – get your State mandated light-bulb and permitted vacuum today! Do it for your country…
Does no one have the energy to protest?
Stupidity reigns supreme in Brussels. 🙁
393
The EU has already made itself a second rate “state”. 3rd World status is next if it’s not already there.
350
Never give to anyone so much power to dictate what you can and cannot do. I’ve seen an argument against the present sentiment to eliminate the EPA, saying, “Would you really want polluted water and air you can see?” The answer of course, is no.
But that much power concentrated in one place is too easily abused. There is no review, no check to keep them in line. The Constitution rightly left to the states all powers the Federal Government did not have explicitly given to it as Constitutional responsibilities. I’m not kidding when I say I fear the EPA and it’s blind lust for power. And EU member states are without a doubt now regretting giving their sovereignty away.
432
It’s always easier to see things from a distance and I’m certainly glad there is a lot of distance between me and the EEU.
Too many people being taxed too much to support too many people doing too little.
Europe is due for a violent revolution soon as people are basically being enslaved to the advantage of the new political Elite whose only ambition is a cushy seat in Bruxelles.
KK
351
“Too many people being taxed too much to support too many people doing too little.”
Isn’t that pretty much a description of the Australian economy ?
We are not that far away !!!!!
290
A “Bouwolf Cluster” Vacuum Cleaner.What do you reckon guys a market winner????<:o)
51
The communist infiltration of the greens sems to be paying off.
The russians call the EU the “European Soviet”. I guess eventually with all this nonsense, iof you cant wash & clean effectively that should make conditions for disease optimal.
“Sorry mate…no flushing loos today…cant afford the electricty for the pumps…”
Welcome to meadevil europe and conditins ripe for the Black Death Mk II…not that could be thier ultimate aim, could it?
20
i
It’s all about the reliable supply of energy.
The leaders of the EU have suddenly realised that expensive and ineficient alternative ebergy isn’t working.
What to do – admit the failure of Global Warming and lose all that lovely Carbon Credit biz?
No.
Just plough on and legislate ineficient and expensive alernative energy products to match ineficient and expensive alternative production.
Yes, that’s the way humans adapted to their environment for survival, lets all follow the EU.
We could climb the tree for safety, but that requires a bit more energy, we’ll be safe from most animals down here, what are the odds of a lion finding us tonight… oops…
Just more dead monkeys.
120
He who is unwilling to risk what he has to fight back will ultimately lose it all anyway. It will not matter if it’s supposedly about a more reliable energy supply or not. History shows that the noose always gets tighter.
200
After the likes of Napoleon and two world wars, what possessed the Brits to think the continent could run a coin laundry, much less a conglomerate of unlike nations?
350
James as the old saying goes “They couldn’t run a chook raffle in a pub”. There is another more explicit saying but I’ll leave that for you to drag out of the memory but has to do with a house of ill-repute and a fist full of money. 🙂
40
The British Army version was: “They couldn’t run a p**s up in a brewery”! My OH is apt to come out with that one!
40
Not to worry. As a result of 2 nuke power stations with substantial problems, Belgium might be short about 1000GW of (dirty) electricity over winter. I propose the electricity rationing starts in the offices of the EU.
130
I doubt they’ll be short of 1000GW.
I suspect that you meant 1000MW.
20
No, no, Roy, this is not stupidity. This is mental illness.
70
Is there a difference? The result seems to be the same. If it walks like a duck…
60
I see by the red thumb at #1 that someone in Brussels finally read this thread. I’m glad you enjoyed the comments. 🙂
40
In Brussels? Oh, I thought you said you hated Brussel Sprouts. 😉
30
I actually eat Brussel Sprouts, as surprising as that may be. 😉
30
I love them myself. Unfortunately my wife does not, so I do not get them very often.
00
Hey, the reign of the scientific technological elite. Everyone has heard about the military industrial complex, but the second warning in the same speech by the same man is generally ignored.
50
This sucks?
10
900 watts from sept 2017 means it’s going to double the time we use? Today 10 min with 1800 watts and from sept 2017 20 min with 900 watts? Watts the logic?
50
There is none…pure ideology…..
Lollipops, uniconrs and rainbows only inide the (E)uropean (U)SSR…
20
Well this sucks! The vacuum cleaners will not be able top suck very much from now on! Glad I am not in Europe, but how long before other countries copy these silly regulations!
230
Not very long. And they will get even sillier and more debilitating to society as they go.
170
Actually, “doesn’t suck”, looks like a more accurate description of the situation. 😉
180
Prymaat will save you:
30
Well, that copy and paste didn’t work. Look up Prymaat Beldar and her vacuuming skills. But then again, maybe not as it might give some eco-nazi ideas.
40
Trying again. And that’s Prymaat Conehead.
40
Nothing unusual at all about this Jo.
I’ve had occasion to live in Italy for nearly a year on vacations over the last nine years.
Washing machines over there are low energy ones too. They work very well, but do take two to two and a half hours to do what our washing machines do in 20 minutes.
Toasters take about five or six minutes to toast bread. I did take an Australian toaster over, and it worked fine – unless I had other things running – then the circuit breaker would cut out all power in the house when the toast popped.
This is because typically, one can only draw 3.6KW of power at any time, unless one pays premiums to get 4.5KW or 6KW. I think that typically our houses get about 20KW.
It took me a while to figure out what is happening in Italy. Housewives have to work hard all morning to prepare a big lunch, when their husbands come home for their three and a half hour lunch break from work. After which the housewives can do house work and some shopping, and then hurry back home to prepare a big dinner. Several of them did share their frustration to my wife and I, that their day was totally taken up.
I finally surmised that the only logical reason for all this control of women’s time, is that they not be afforded the opportunity to cheat on their husbands. Thus, the introduction of this new vacuum cleaner, which ultimately will double the amount of time women spend vacuuming, will be warmly received over there.
Regards.
470
I can concur on the washing machine front. I got a good quality washing machine from 1992 – a top grade Italian model. Two years ago I replaced it with an A+ German machine. On a standard cotton cycle it takes more than twice as long and does not wash as well. The way to get nearly a comparable wash is to go for the “Aqua Plus” & pre-wash option. Uses more powder, but still washes at a lower temperature, hence not as good.
140
Yes, similarly, my wife uses the Italian washing machine’s two hour cycle for not very dirty clothes. Otherwise she goes for the three and a half hour cycle – which doesn’t rotate all that much longer, but leaves clothes soaking for ages during that cycle.
Regards.
30
Ha.. washing machines..
I still have “Betsy”, a Simpson 144 top loader that I bought in 1978.
Huge capacity, she loves heaps of water. She made it through a mouse plague out in the central west (I had to replace the drive belts though).
Her balance is a bit wonky, so if you load he badly the house shakes when Betsy is on her spin cycle.
But she’s still going. 🙂
They don’t make them like her any more. !!
230
Fair point about using new models for longer. I wonder if they plan on stopping you vacuuming your house for double the time (to compensate for the lack of suction.)
I’d heard that the Monty Python team had got back together but I didn’t know they were running the EU.
101
So if you have half the suction, and have to vacuum for twice as long for the same degree of “cleanliness”, then you are using exactly the same amount of power to get the job done to the same standard.
It is not going to save power. What the EU has stolen from the population with this move, is time.
The way the Nobles of feudal Europe remained in power, was to ensure that the Serfs had no time to think about their lot in life.
100
To be fair Rereke, suction and power are not necessarily proportional. For 18 years I’ve run a Stihl SE100 in my workshop which is better than the average domestic unit yet it’s rated at only 1000W. I actually couldn’t care less if my vac is burning up a few extra cents of electricity providing the bastard works properly. Anyway, it’s non of anyone else’s business how use the power I purchase. I might be running a 15 amp arc welder.
If I was an over-paid Eurocrat I might look to the big energy consumers like aircraft. Even a test cycle after an engine service on a Boeing 747 uses several tonnes of av gas so I find it hard to believe that the EU folks are serious about saving a few kWh’s a year on a minor household appliance.
Are they being devious or are they really that daft ? Sadly, I suspect the latter.
50
“Europeans” aren’t giving freedoms away. Nobody asked us. Absolutely nobody.
Who even knew this measure was being considered, debated or that it had passed? I certainly didn’t and I’m a little more informed than the average citizen I think. Brussels is a remote bureaucracy with little to no contact with ordinary citizens.
360
Robinson, I wondered about that. I had not heard anything of this til today. Yet only 10 days to go?! I was amazed. I expected it would be a few years off.
Companies like Hoover and Dyson obviously knew about this for the last year. But they didn’t speak up. They didn’t alert the public? Is the government so big now that large companies dare not whip up dissent? Or did they kowtow because they believe the mantra, and figure they’d have to get “efficient” soon anyway? Dyson machines are all below 1600W, so maybe lower is possible (though obviously some people prefer the Hoovers so perhaps there are losses of some kind in the smaller Watt type). I gather Dyson are still protesting the other regulations because they think their machines will fail a badly designed test.
In the conglomerate state the people who make decisions are far too removed from the people. The break up of the EU will be a great day for democracy.
My commiserations Robinson. I fear the actual giving away of freedoms happened in 2002 (if not before).
360
Jo, as you mentioned Hoover I thought I’d get in the one-liner that Tim Vine won with at the Edinburgh Fringe:
Seriously, Dyson could do well with this, He champions low power, high revving digital motors in his vacs – on which he has the patents. Hmmmm.
160
Premium brand companies will love this change. You can improve performance cheaply by upping the power. More expensively by clever technology.
I went on a popular UK website looking for the most popular upright pet vacuum cleaners. Dyson is easily the most popular brand, but cost £219-£420. Found a new, EU compliant, upright for pets with just 3 reviews (4.7/5) for £90, a £115 2100W non-EU compliant with 16 reviews (4.6/5). This does not seem to be a problem, but does mean less choice.
But the bottom end of the market are cylinder vacuum cleaners. 14 are listed on the website. 11 (costing £40-£60) are non-EU compliant, 2 (£59 & £60) are, and 1 (£59) is not rated.
It is fine for the middle class, but life is more expensive for the poor, for students and for those setting up home for the first time.
60
Air velocity at the nozzle depends on the power input and the geometry of the nozzle, either we end up wth lower air velocity or smaller heads on the Vac. It is possible the the expiry of Dysans patent on the cyclonic (no filter) vacuum cleaner has precipitated this, a lot of the power in the older Vacuums was wasted in pushing air through the filter bag.
There are ways to make vacuum cleaners more efficient over and above going cyclonic which is a big saver (especially adding brushes at the head to part (demat) the carpet and flick up the dust into the air stream, but on the whole this just means more expensive vacuum cleaners.
Having said that, having a deadbeat government regulate how big a vacuum cleaner can be seems just a little bit orwellian to me, but then again noone ever said brussels was a democracy, much less a capitalist one.
130
I absolutely hated the only Dyson I ever had. It was heavy and terribly noisy. I’ll never have one of theirs again. I have had a small, efficient German machine for the last few years; a Fakir, quiet and with variable suction control.
As to EU regs being sprung onto an unsuspecting population, disgusting.
80
I have a Dyson and I *love* it. Wonderful thing. Best Vac I’ve ever had (it’s my 3rd, all the rest were crap, though none were cheap). The cheap stuff really is utter crap.
30
A Dyson is ok if you don’t mind the deafening shriek and have the shoulders of Atlas. I haven’t and the noise drove me crackers…I had to wear ear defenders (ear muffs to my Aussie friends).
30
Still plugging along with a 1987 Electrolux. About time to replace the hose and power head.
30
Hoover and Dyson wouldnt speak up. Theyre set to make a killing in vacuum sales.
60
If e.g. Dyson was keeping quiet in the expectation of cornering the market on “low power” (aka “high effort”) vacuum cleaners, then they’ve shot themselves in the foot as a more stringent 900W restriction comes into effect in about 3 years.
The subject has been mentioned previously on this blog e.g. “in passing“. Including the restriction on coffee makers.
A new EU regulation requires coffee makers to become more complicated; requiring new ones to be fitted with a time to shut off the heater (typically a hot plate for the coffee decanter on a drip-filter machine) about 30 minutes after the brew completes. This means adding “intelligence” to the machines, requiring sensors to trigger a timing function where previously, everything was hard-wired electro-mechanical with a simple on-off switch and a light to show when it’s on.
Increased complexity is not without increased costs and unreliability. Instead of simple household appliances lasting decades, they become (toxic) waste when their complex components are at end of life; and unique replacements parts are unobtainable or the cost of repair is perhaps higher than the cost of replacement.
EU bureaucrats need to be served tepid coffee while the carpets in their offices accumulate dust; feeding mites and other bugs. I trust that they will find comfort in that and the consequences for real people.
80
I had one of these babies…. we are talken serious suck!
10
ok mod, fix my image
10
That’s a 165HP turbo Hino spinning a 1.2 metre fan sucking through a 9 inch pipe. You can feed this baby house bricks. We were sucking 60 cubic yards of dirt a day from 10 metres underground up to 25 metres along a mine drive.
Now that my friends is a vacuum cleaner 😛
20
Too right. Our freedoms are being taken away, not given away.
There was an interesting (re-)post on Tallbloke recently – if Vernon Coleman is right, the UK, at least, isn’t properly a member of the EU anyhow. The only problem I can see with his case is that trying to correct the error involves getting the Powers that Be to admit they made a mistake. Good luck with that …
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/vernon-coleman-was-britain-taken-into-the-eu-illegally/
130
The last paragraph of Jo’s article is based on a fallacy.
70 years ago, most European Governments, far from “fighting for freedom”, were fighting against the idea of freedom.
Looks like their successors are winning that fight.
50
When you became the EU you gave away the farm right there. As I understand it, each member state had to have voter approval of the EU or it wouldn’t have happened. Everything else follows predictably from the original giveaway of your sovereignty to Brussels.
If my memory is wrong someone please let me know.
I was appalled that you so easily fell for something so obviously a mistake. And I’m not at all happy that I was right. You cannot trust others, in this case what amounts to an absentee landlord, with your precious freedoms.
140
you guys are screwed until the Muslim Europeans get upset with it
110
You gave them away when you set up a system of governance with no oversight.
10
I’m envisioning new, all green products. I believe I will design a line of eco friendly mattresses and furniture with air filled cushions made of natural latex. Think of all the reductions in water used from eliminating cotton padding and reductions in the use oil to make plastic based foams and vinyl. Of course every household will now need a new high volume, high pressure inflation system to keep them at the proper level of firmness. Since airborne contaminates can cause many problems the inflation pumps will be designed with fully filtered “intakes” to prevent the pump from accidentally sucking up dust and dirt from the owner’s home. Since we will not want our customers having to wait too long for the cushions to inflate I figure a 2 or 2.5 horsepower air pump will be just about right. Since our friends across the pond in Europe seem to be much better at going “green” I think that would be the best place to market this revolutionary new furniture line
91
NielsZoo.
While your furniture and pumps are different there are things made now that are not called vacuum cleaners but should be. These things are used to “vacuum” the air inside government buildings in Brussels. They should not be exempt from this rule.
40
They’d need to add a special rule since most of them only use ~100 watts at rest. I’m reasonably sure that if the ones in Brussels work like the ones we have in Washington DC, that figure is probably lower since the “CPU” on the top doesn’t really do any work and it’s role is limited to exhausting heated, CO2 laden air towards microphones and news cameras.
10
Soon they will dictate the temperature we can have our baths and showers and for how long.
140
California is wanting to eventually put a thermostat in every home that will allow setting the temperature by remote control. I don’t know if that will happen and if it does, how soon it will be here. But I promise you it will happen to me only if they enter my house by force. And they will get the best fight I can put up to stop them.
Enough is enough. I have not that much time left to lose in a battle with the state and I’m beginning to relish an opportunity to fight back. I keep remembering men like Patrick Henry and how much they dared to risk in the hope of freedom from dictatorship. I wish more Americans showed me evidence of a similar willingness to fight back.
If you don’t become willing to fight back you will eventually be little more than prisoners of the state in your own home.
160
Roy, it is hard to mount an effective resistance to Big Government when nearly half of the population are on Big Government welfare (otherwise called addicting those who do not like work so they must vote for the Democrat Party or lose the handouts). The other half work to support the system. But with an open border 4000 mi long, those on welfare will swamp the workers and take the jobs of the most needy workers. Also, Obama proposed before his 2008 election to 1) significantly change the country–he has. 2) Obama said the civilian police should be as well funded and armed as the military–he has made significant progress on this with constant-dollar reductions in military budgets to where we have projected military budgets to plunge to the pre-1940 levels. And look how big DHS and other armed federal agencies have grown. Finally he has spoken at the UN that one nation should not be bigger and more powerful than another. We have stood by and let this all happen. Did you see how the local police were armed and equipped in Missouri?
Our best choice seems to be to throw the bums out in the next 2 elections.
100
All very true. But if we don’t fight it things will continue down hill.
And not all of what we need to fight is from DC or even from government.
40
Roy, you are correct. Thank you.
30
I want to know what they have done to the French farmers.
Even with sensible regulations they would be rioting in the street, building road blocks, & burning anything that would light. Why are they not fighting this crap.
The EU really is a great model, where those that control the place aren’t elected, so they have no fear of being kicked out, no matter how stupid their actions. Pretty much like the EPA in the US, only even worse.
100
Water temperature is already legislated or mandated in Western Australia. I think it is 50C. It isn’t hot enough for winter though. By the time the hot water has reached the kitchen on the other side of the house in winter the water is only hand hot and not hot enough for greasy dishes. i don’t think its to save power though – more to save children and old people from getting burned.
60
This has serious health consequences as bugs love that climate.
80
Electrician says green program may have increased bacteria risk………..
Meanwhile an electrician has told the ABC that a State Government energy efficiency program may have increased the risk of Legionella bacteria living in the water supplies of homes and businesses across Queensland.
The Wesley Hospital has had its hot water temperatures limited to 45 degrees Celsius, in line with Queensland regulations designed to prevent patients from scalding themselves.
But a Brisbane electrician who worked for the State Government’s now defunct Climate Smart Program says anyone who used that service would have had their hot water system temperatures reduced to 50C to save energy.
He says electricians warned the Government at the time that lowering the temperature would encourage harmful bacteria growth, but the warning was ignored.
“Part of the direction given was to turn down all the hot water systems all over Queensland down to 50 degrees,” the man, who did not want to be named, said.
“Anybody that had the Climate Smart service had the temperature of their hot water system reduced [from] 65 to 70 degrees down to 50.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-07/electrician-says-efficiency-program-put-homes-businesses-at-risk/4739254
30
Hmmm, my HWS is set to 70 to kill bugs – BUT there is a clever little valve thingy on the side that adds cold water as it leaves the system to drop the temperature down to a “safe” 50c for use
30
What’s that called and where can you find it? It sounds like a great idea.
20
Some plumbers call it a “tempering valve”. More accurately it’s a “thermostatic mixing valve”. They cost about $70 in Bunnings, FWIW.
They are different to anti-scald valves; which are somewhat more complicated, don’t allow water hotter than about 38⁰C (IIRC) and are usually fitted closer to each outlet (each wash-basin, shower, etc) than the thermostatic mixing valve; the mixer typically only fitted near the “boiler”; though larger buildings can/should have several so that the water doesn’t get much colder before it reaches the outlet.
They’re a primary (hot) water safety valve that’s required on newer plumbing installations (and with water heater retrofits, IIRC). They are essential on solar-thermal hot water systems as the tank temperature can get close to boiling point in the sunny months and water that hot coming out of the tap will cause serious burns very quickly.
NB: Make sure that the mixing valve is rated to the temperature of teh “boiler”; which’ll be 99⁰C or more in the case of solar.
20
Thanks for that info Bernd Felsche.
00
Hmmm. I’m in SA and wound mine back to about 40C years ago. This way my HWS lasts 15+ years on our highly mineralised mains water. You need to be > about 35C to kill the bugs provided the heat time is long enough (30+ mins) which is OK on a storage heater.
I also find that with teenage kids (and a large HWS) that the lower temp means they get out of the damn shower then the water runs cold. Else they’d cost me even more in gas and water charges.
Regards the thing about killing the bugs: we do have chlorinated water. That’s why we can drink what comes out the tap.
20
This may sound harsh and callous, which isn’t what I intend. It’s a serious thing to be burned by hot water. But it isn’t the state’s responsibility to dictate settings for water heaters any more than they have the responsibility to set my thermostat. If a child is too young to regulate the temperature for a bath then the parents are there to do that job and should see to it that their child is safe. The same with age only sometimes the roles need to be reversed.
Another problem is that over the years the number, size and language of warnings that come with a new water heater have become more like an effort to scare me into being safe. It’s gotten close to literally saying, “If you don’t follow these instructions exactly, you will die.” Yet since I was about 11 or 12 years old I was handling the gas appliances in my parent’s house. So I think it can’t really be so hard or so dangerous. The water heater was a real problem because it was located in a small closet opening on the back yard with openings at top and bottom of the door. So it only took a little wind from the right direction to blow out the pilot light. My biggest danger when relighting it was the black widow spiders that loved to hang out in that closet. Unfortunately the instructions for relighting didn’t include how to deal with black widow spiders and I had to figure that out for myself.
At least here, the plethora of warnings about every danger under the sun is driven by the appliance manufacturer’s need to cover themselves against liability. There are too many hungry tort lawyers. Even cell phones, where there has never been a demonstrable danger from RF exposure, come with warnings that discusses the possibility that it’s dangerous to use them.
I keep wondering how I lived so long without all the warnings. I like being safe but I don’t like being treated like a child.
30
Time to crowdfund a 3000 Watt vacuum cleaner that is electronically reduced to 900 Watt but can be “rooted” by entering a magic password.
210
I likes the cut o’ yer thinkin’, lad! 😀
60
To tell the truth that’s easy to do, use a DC motor and a PSU, very efficient because you can use a rare earth permanent magnet motor, that’s if all the rare earths aren’t taken up making windmills, and inducing unicorns to fart. Change the PSU voltage and whala, more power, though you do need to be sure the motor is big enough to handle the power. You could design a “universal machine”, you know for europe, and the sane rest of the world, which could with just a little hacking be upgraded.
60
You can buy small robots like roomba quite inexpensively now, they don’t pick up much dust so I suppose you could have two or three going round cleaning as long as they don’t fight with each other.
I threw out my vacuum, it was just gathering dust
31
Maybe if the Roombas fight each other, you can charge admission.
40
There are also restrictions on wood burning stoves
http://notrickszone.com/2014/08/19/eu-enviro-totalitarians-impose-restrictions-on-woodstoves-vacuum-cleaners-limited-to-900-watts-in-2017/
It’ll be BBQs next
80
“There are also restrictions on wood burning stoves”
Gees, Bob Brown won’t like that !!!
60
This is one of those advances in progressive thinking that brings home the futility of a good education, when such education of mind can be so easily bought to naught via everyone being converted to spineless yes-men and women, who won’t stand up to the utterly vapid, and just ask them to go away and grow up.
Did anyone get to vote on it? oh sorry, disregard that, they don’t do that over there, they’re so radically socio-politicly advanced that the powers that wannabe have arbitrarily decided the public has grown past all of that and decided dictat is preferable for ‘important’ matters. No one who matters complained so they just do that now.
Pay your taxes, the IMF needs some coin … and eat yer peas.
140
The EU motto……
Greater minds than you know what is best for you and you will like it !
30
It’s disconcerting to think that the EU believes new regulations to reduce power necessarily means better performance. It’s pure propaganda.
They get this idea from the notion that climate change action leads directly to better technology. And they get this idea, from the idea that the government ultimately knows better than the market. And they get this idea from the fact that they are the government, and have to pander to their own egos and also be seen doing something.
So it’s back to making vacuum cleaners by government decree, as part of the next 5 year cleaning plan, whereby every citizen will rejoice in the wonder of the glorious People’s Republic Vacuum Cleaner. It’s a wonder they don’t add ‘so let us unite and vacuum ourselves forth to the final victory!’.
The idea that they have to add propaganda to something to try and hide the fact that the regulation means things wont work as well, will only backfire. It always does.
110
I never designed a vacuum cleaner in my life but I know that less power means either lower RPMs or a smaller squirrel-cage to create that vacuum. Either way its performance is degraded. You never get out more than you put in.
There is one exception to that rule. You always get more out of a politician than you put in. They seem to be self powering. 🙁
20
The EU sucks, vacuum cleaners don’t.
250
The point isn’t really about saving energy, this time it is about air convection, the fresh air comes in the machine and hot air goes out amplifying the warming .
vacuum cleaners are mass murderer and worse mass climate murderer.
My vacuum cleaner ..cyclona…no comment.
I am european and proud to say i will fight the vacuum axe of evil til your death.
50
Are you serious….. or am I missing a /sarc tag?
00
I’m not even sure what he means let alone the absence of a sarc tag.
11
Possibly a language difficulty?
10
His or mine Roy? 🙂
10
His, since I’m as puzzled as you are. But there’s also the possibility that the problem belongs to us I suppose. 😉
00
I have been admiring your custom avatar. Are you by chance located in Israel?
10
I also was admiring it too.
00
Haven’t got around to restrictions on the capacity of their car engines yet; Imagine a 0.5 litre supercharged Mercedes or Audi? Probably won’t either as they have to ferry around all the Eurocrats to their meetings between Brussels and Strasbourg. Sorry, being a little facetious, what about Comcars using Toyota Prius?
90
Give them time, their stupidity knows no bounds. Also goes the prove they are hypocrites in the extreme. They band “over-powered” vacuum cleaners but they will not band over powered cars with V8’s, V10’s, V12’s, W12’s etc. I think “stupid” is too kind a description for such people.
60
You clearly don’t know how the EU operates.
Although the EU Commissars, bureaucrats and Parliamentarians are often entitled to a limousine with driver they more often than not fly to their destination; while their car is being driven to that same destination to chauffeur them around. I couldn’t make that up; will have to dig up the press report about one better than us doing precisely such a thing in the past year or so.
30
Don’t sell the Prius short. You realise that 97% of all Prius’s manufactured are still on the road today…
…the other 3% actually made it home.
50
– next big kettles, hot irons?
Cheeseburgers.
“The documentary film “Cowspiracy,” released this week in select cities, builds on the growing cultural notion that the single greatest environmental threat to the planet is the hamburger you had for lunch the other day. ”
An Inconvenient History:
New Insight Into Neolithic Europe Cattle Domestication
Modern cattle are the domesticated descendant of the aurochs, a wild species that became extinct in the 17th century.
The aurochs’ domestication already began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Near East.
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/07/2014/new-insight-into-neolithic-europe-cattle-domestication
Analysis Confirms Dairy Farming in Prehistoric Finland
The Finns are the world’s biggest milk drinkers today but experts had previously been unable to establish whether prehistoric dairy farming was possible in the harsh environment that far north, where there is snow for up to four months a year.
Research by the Universities of Bristol and Helsinki, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, is the first of its kind to identify that dairying took place at this latitude – 60 degrees north of the equator.
This is equally as far north as Canada’s Northwestern territories, Anchorage in Alaska, Southern Greenland and near Yakutsk in Siberia.
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/07/2014/analysis-confirms-dairy-farming-in-prehistoric-finland
10,000 years later:
Prof debunks flatulence as major cause of global warming
“In its report “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the U.N. concluded that livestock were contributing 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases — allegedly more than the entire world’s transpiration.
The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change used the report to forecast that Himalayan glaciers might vanish within 25 years.
Mitloehner convinced the U.N. to recant its claim in 2010.
However, (97% IPCC climate) scientists insist livestock methane is still a source that should be mitigated even if belching, farting animals have fallen in the U.N. rankings of polluters.”
http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/prof-debunks-flatulence-as-major-cause-of-global-warming/article_1c6c9c5e-2dbb-11e2-9e51-0019bb2963f4.html
. . .
97% IPCC climate scientists present their mitigation proposal:
Cow fart back pack
You know it makes sense (to idiots)
50
They better keep their grubby hands off my hamburger too. Never come between a man and his favorite junk food. Never!
However, judging by what I see being served in restaurants and what’s bought in the supermarkets I’d say there’s no danger they can actually stop anyone from raising beef. It sells too well.
There’s also no danger that anyone is following the government’s food guidelines. But that’s another
jokestory.20
Remember Detective Thorn in Soylent Green? The world is eating people, but he finds a flimsy steak, and he and Sol feast on it!
Yea, beef is what’s for dinner most places.
30
The sickening personal micromanagement of lives and choices by the Ministry of We Know Best For Your Own Good is incremental. Watch for the next salvo.
130
Why pick on Vacuum cleaners? What about that most useless of objects — the hair dryer?
Cut your hair for climate change euro-Ladies! Can’t be melting polar bears just to keep your
long locks dry and shiny.
80
And all those darn chemicals that they put in hair shampoo.
All of them have to be manufactured or extracted by killing plant life (or sometimes animal life)
And quite a few of those chemicals come from fossil fuel refining. !
They are not needed except for vanity’s sake. Dump them !
50
Careful Griss – Don’t be telling women what to put in their hair, or how to style it lest you unleash the wrath of womanhood upon you! Actually, just give leaflets with the directions to the people responsible in Brussels and it’ll be razed to the ground…good idea.
10
– next big kettles, hot irons?
Paid editors on Wikipedia – should you be worried?
https://theconversation.com/paid-editors-on-wikipedia-should-you-be-worried-30527
wikiwashing
Who edits Wikipedia pages and why matters.
40
Of course they’ll ultimately say that you won’t need a big vacuum cleaner because they’re going to force you to live in a smaller house anyway.
I have to laugh though because, here in the USA, the marketing of vacuum cleaners is a total scam because they print maximum motor “horsepower” or amperes on the box luring customers into thinking the higher the number – the more “powerful” the machine. In fact nothing could be further from the truth because they are not reporting the maximum output power in terms of air flow multiplied by the pressure drop – they are reporting the maximum power that the device can draw from the electrical receptacle which occurs when the motor is .. stopped! Basically it is the highest amount of energy that can possibly be wasted by the machine while it is doing nothing at all, essentially functioning as a heater!
To anyone duped into believing your vacuum cleaner has a 1.5 horsepower motor – here is what a typical 1.5 horsepower motor looks like when HP is based on its output: http://www.baldor.com/products/detail.asp?1=1&page=12&catalogonly=1&catalog=L1313A&product=AC+Motors&family=Single+Phase|vw_ACMotors_SinglePhase&winding=35WGW099&rating=40CMB-CONT (note the weight…)
40
Yes Mike, I missed that, you are dead right, those little motors are nothing like a real 2.5KW one, they are rated so that the peak current is less than the receptacle can safely deliver – for safety purposes, so the current on the label is actually the stall current of the motor which is about 4-6 times the average running current. In theory then all that needs to be done is to put a cheap electronic soft starter ahead of the motor and then you can have the same motor running at the same power or even more power. I’m sure such a change will do heaps for the climate (not).
Will have the interesting side effect that italian housewives won’t trip the circuit breaker when turning on the vaccie
30
I don’t agree Mike M, the ratings for motors include “full locked” (shaft stalled) and maximum rated continuous load. The full load of a vacuum cleaner would be when the hose is plugged not a locked or stalled rotor. By design it would be difficult to lock or stall a vacuum motor. Also the starting current of a typical vacuum motor is pretty low because it has almost no load until up to speed.
On the matter of sales literature and “horsepower”, there isn’t much reason to argue the propaganda there and the same crap is found in the air compressor market too.
30
That’s all I was addressing so I’m not certain what it is you are disagreeing with??
And BTW … the greatest load on a vacuum cleaner is NOT when the hose is plugged, it is when there is the least obstruction and moving the greatest amount of air.
Go ahead and test it for yourself. Block the vacuum’s hose with your hand and the motor will spin faster because there is less load on it.
My “5 Peak HP” Sears Wet/Dry draws about 8 amperes normally then drops to 6 amperes when I block the hose = 25% less load.
00
Ooops, the link interpreter had a fit with that one, use this for a link: http://tinyurl.com/m3f5l35
20
Give and inch, Take a mile.
Lol, I just did a Google search “bureaucracy leads to”. Very interesting results.
30
Just when you think it cant get any more wacky!
50
And just how much more expensive are these new vacuum cleaners going to cost?
And how much more are hired cleaners going to charge to cover costs?
Will there be a vacuum credit exchange put in place for the heavy suckers? Like commercial and industrial cleaners?
What about wet vacs?
And what about blowers? Hair dryers? Theyre doing the same thing as vacuums, just going the other way and blowing that murderous air right in your face!
60
When the Left do something absurd, as always the first question to ask is if they are being evil or just plain stupid.
I recall a few years ago one of our own commie governments in New South Wales pulling an ‘energy saving’ stunt. I do not recall whether it was a socialist Labor government or a socialist Liberal government – what’s the difference, anyway. What happened was this: they invoked the old ‘envy’ policy of punishing someone who has ‘more’ than you have. They said that too much electricity was being used in summer because wealthier people with air conditioning units were running them all day every day. This was unduly taxing the generation system, so it would be necessary to increase charges on the upper band of electricity tariffs.
Win-win-win. The commies got to suck up to the electorate by exploiting envy. They increased taxes without it appearing to have been the case. They reduced energy consumption, which delayed the day that they inevitably became accountable for failing to invest in sufficient supply to match growth.
What a dump of a country we live in – a country governed by unprincipled, self-serving scum. If the corporations laws applied to politicians half of them would be in jail and the rest would be banned from politics for life. How do we fix this? You can see from the conservative blogs that there is a huge groundswell fueled by disillusionment with the fools and cowards we have in federally and in all the states and territories. Government at all levels is either incompetent or corrupt. The only answer is for us to take direct control of public policy, as the Swiss do. That after all, is what has kept the Swiss out of the vacuum cleaner dictatorship of the EU. But the Left, who control the institutions of this country and are at this moment bullying the cowardly Abbott government into resiling from whatever meagre reforms it might have been considering, will fight to the death to keep their stangle-hold on public policy. What is the answer?
So, returning to topic, is the new EU vacuum cleaner fascism simply one of many measures designed to take financial pressure off the incompetent, cash-strapped socialist governments of Europe?
91
To steal a good line, those old vacuum cleaners have just been gathering dust.
40
More likely, the humble vacuum cleaner is being consigned to the dustbin of history.
10
2014 FAILED Super El Niño UPDATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Significant’ El Niño still possible” laments the (non)Conversation today.
“Regardless how this pans out over the next month, it is important to be aware that a weak El Niño can still have a significant impact on Australia.
Droughts and bushfires in Australia have been severe during moderate El Niño years.”
NOTE; NO prediction of floods.
~ ~ ~
A reminder that in 2009 our BoM predicted carbon(sic) induced drought & bushfire (no floods) for 2011, because of El Niño.
The result: 38 dead.
Quoting the ‘academic rigour’ practised at the con:
“Meanwhile our colleagues in the United States could finally get some rain in the drought-stricken regions along the west coast, a situation that will no doubt be welcomed.”
This confirms the great Joe Bastardi’s prediction, SATURDAY SUMMARY JUNE 21, 2014 (5.00 minutes):
Wall Street Journal - 2 days ago: Floods Close Interstate North of Phoenix
Flash floods hit Phoenix, residents rescued – CNN.com
(via ‘oogle)
. . .
Unlike our BoM, Joe could tell us where we might expect floods in summer 2014-2015.
41
Yes, for months now the Left in Australia have been wishing for an El Nino in the hope that it will bring drought, which will allow them to fire up the global warming scam.
It will be interesting to see if the theory about counter-rotating upper atmosphere high-pressure systems (search this blog for the topic) is validated. If so, 2018 will bring the next El Nino event.
61
Next regulation..
Neither pots nor kettles are allowed to be black.
That way, one phrase most useful against far left-wing hypocrites, can no longer be used.
90
So true Griss lol
These regulations are done by the latte sipping left in front of their latest COFFEE MACHINE
Probably one in each office. Even the small coffee machines are about 1,000W and even use that every time they blasts the cup warmer throughout the day (this is a machine that did 1 cup in a day).
Just hypocrites of the worst kind.
Next will be ovens preset to only reach 100 deg C?
51
These regulations are done by people who have never used a vacume cleaner.
Fixed it for you Dave.
50
“vacume ” -> vacuum
Fixed it for you, Greg. 🙂
50
They will most probably be green so the adage will still stand.
OT…the first stage of my plan to attack Palmer with 18c is complete. Hedley Thomas, at the Australian has an article on me today.
60
Link sonny…. link!
51
Thats racist!
40
Another complaint for the HRC???
30
They are allowed to “feel” black if they want to, though.
60
They just have to “self identify” and all is OK. Unless of course you are Andrew Bolt then you will be Mordyfied.
30
And how is it racist when both pots and kettles are treated equally ?
40
You said pots and kettles aren’t allowed to be black.
That’s racial discrimination!
My kettles red.
I call him Navaho Cherokee ‘He Who Boil Water’.
40
Are you saying that “black” is a race ?
Interesting concept !!
I myself, don’t subscribe to that belief.
40
Anyway, when a pot calls a kettle , “black”, is that racist?
40
Nah, thats like to black guys calling each other n*****.
But if the pot was white. . .
40
And if the pot was sort of floral, with a sort of limp wristed spout !!
Darn its complicated, isn’t it.
You really have to sense the inner(tube) conflict when you buy a set of white-walled tyres !!
40
OMG! White walled tyres driving on a black road!?
That’s a euphemism of the white man treading on the black man!
50
Or a black person painting their face white to make progress in life.
Enough, I think.. before we upset someone unintentionally 🙂
40
Furthermore, this edict that vacuums may not have more than a specific amount of power….
that is really getting political..
yet look at most politicians….
By this edict.. that should all resign. 🙂
30
And furthermore.. if neither pots or kettles are black, the racist slur of each calling the other black, can no longer occur. !
(If you assume that calling something “black” is racist, of course. Otherwise it is just a description)
Just so long as neither chooses to be offended. 😉
20
Then you’ll love this. . .
The Seattle city government has banned the words ‘Citizen’ because its offensive to immigrants and ‘Brown Bag’ (brown paper bag) because its racist.
20
Interesting.. so immigrant aren’t considered citizens. !!
That seems like the ultimate put-down.
20
Anything remotely resembling a perfect black body emitter should be banned. They’re dangerous, -didn’t you know.
10
If adjusting the sucking power of a vacuum downwards is good for the environment, would converting it to a negative suction action (blowing) reverse global warming??!!
50
Aristotle was wrong! it appears the EU abhors a vacuum.
Which still works, as sanity disappears from nature the EU being a product of human nature will fill the void in the form of stupidity.
This clearly explains the cycle of civilizations rising and falling, a blow by blow description of vacuums.
60
Pogo had it right! “We have met the enemy and
they are us”.
60
It may not matter anyway:
from http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/?currentPage=2
“Belgian energy company Electrabel said its Doel 4 nuclear reactor would stay offline at least until the end of this year after major damage to its turbine, with the cause confirmed as sabotage”
Running a vacuum cleaner off a dead powerpoint pretty well summarises the Brussels position 🙂
100
Well now, Belgium has WIND POWER…. now they can all show us just how good it is 😛
30
Yeah, it’s the height of inefficiency, isn’t it.
Windmills convert wind power into electricity, . . . lose 10% in transmission losses . . . vacuum cleaner converts said electricity into wind power to suck up dust !
It occurs to me that anyone living within cooee of a windmill might be mandated to just open a window and have all that fast moving fresh air carry away the dust au natural.
10
Europeans have allowed this to happen to themselves through their slavish worship of GAIA … sorry, I have no compassion for you (even my own family in Europe). Henceforth, it is back to the old carpet beater and dust plumes in the neighbourhood … imagine the amount of PM2.5 particles that will become airborne … were’s the US EPA when they’re needed, this will cause cross border pollution.
90
“where’s”
00
Absurd? The concept of efficiency must also include the time it takes to complete a vacuuming job right? So half the power means double the time it takes to do a decent job on the carpet. Maybe even, the carpet doesn’t get clean and wears out prematurely leading to more CO2 as the replacement carpet is manufactured.
These people are idiots. Who put them in charge and how do they get removed?
90
Sounds like time to bring out “madame guillotine” and deal with these anti human vermin at the EU !!
viva revolution !!!
10
The difference between a good vacuum cleaner and the Swiss Navy?
A good vacuum cleaner sucks and sucks and never fails.
……..
What is next for regulation?
Limits on use of CPAP assisted breathing devices?
Kidney dialysis machines?
..?….
What is the REAL intent of the smart meter programs?
Why do you think I am resisting to the max?
Not by sucking up, though.
61
Is this any different from the stupid move by Malcolm Turnbull to ban incandescent light globes forcing Australia to more expensive light globes with shorter lives and home lighting, for most people, that is worse than that experienced by our great grand-parents?
Stupid is what stupid does……..
91
Not to mention exposing us to mercury poisoning via breakage or disposal of the things. The EU doesn’t have a monopoly on reckless stupidity.
41
I got a voucher in the mail the other day saying if I replace 25 halogen down lights in my house to LED I can save up to $500 per year!
So, Beacon lighting sells LED down lights for $100 each.
I can buy a pack of six halogen globes for $10.
So, who introduces and funds these lighting regulations? General Electric.
Who manufactures the globes? General Electric.
40
Guess I’ll have to buy a 2000 watt blower and run it backwards!
40
So people will vacuum for longer. A bit like the low-flush toilets where you flush five times to get that last floating pea. (In the end you have to fish it.)
Europe is a wonderful place in its parts. But when they all come together you inevitably get something like Eurovision.
90
Tony rubs hands in glee!
Oh dear!
What a FAIL of monumental proportions.
They want to lower electrical power consumption by, umm, lowering the power usage of vacuum cleaners.
By half no less!
So then, let’s see.
The average home owner, (I’m too scared of being called politically incorrect or sexist by saying the word housewife here, because, let’s face it, it’s mostly not men who do the vacuuming is it) will vacuum their home on one set day a week, usually, and it might take, let’s say every person is really conscientious at the task, and takes an hour to do the lot.
So average power consumption in the average home is around 22KWH per day, and 7 days in a week, hence 140KWH per week.
So, a reduction of 0.6KWH is a saving of 0.39% of the residential consumption.
Total residential consumption is 37% of all electrical power consumption. (in virtually every developed Country)
Total consumption for all of Europe comes in at 3500TWH per year, so Residential consumption (37% of that) is 1295TWH.
So a 0.39% saving on that comes in at 5TWH a year, so, equating that back to the overall total power consumption of that 3500TWH per year, there’s a power reduction of 0.14%
That 5TWH saving overall is around the equivalent supply from ONE large scale coal fired power plant in, oh, 100 days.
That’s only if they can force every home to replace their existing vacuum cleaners with the new vastly more expensive vacuum cleaners.
Now, try telling the commercial cleaners who vacuum every high rise every night that they also need to throw out their industrial sized vacuum cleaners and get these new lower power cleaners also.
Don’t you just love it when a FAIL of such monumental proportions as this is explained in its correct context.
That savings in CO2 emissions, well let’s also look at that then.
Now no one does their vacuuming in their home between the hours of 10PM and 5AM, so all this vacuuming is done during daylight hours, which is in that Peaking Power times, probably most of it when people get home from work, and knock off that chore as fast as they can on one day a week.
So this is at a time when those peaking power plants are in use, because the coal fired plants are used to just supply the base load, and those mainly NG peaking power plants emit only 40 to 50% of the CO2 of those coal fired plants.
So half of the 0.14%, comes in at 0.07%, with, half the CO2 emissions so, here we have an emissions savings of 0.035%.
That’s zero point zero three five percent.
Hey, if they were serious about the emissions of CO2 and how they are so deadly, they’d just turn those plants off altogether, now, wouldn’t they.
This vacuum stunt is a really serious effort to lower CO2 emissions. (do I really need add /sarc here?)
You have to laugh.
Tony.
80
I’m sorry, I missed a clarification here in this last explanation where I said this:
All the vacuuming is done during Peaking Power times.
Those NG Peaking power plants provide half the power (over and above the Base Load) during those Peak times, so that’s where the first part of the reduction comes in, from 0.14% down to 0.07%.
Tony.
50
POPULATION REDUCTION TRADING SCHEME
Prepare for an extension of EU approach here – reduction of number of purchasers of vacuum cleaners. To be legislated soon, it will involve issuing each person at birth with a tradable certificate permitting them to have one child. Singles and couples in a childless union will be able to sell their ‘excess’ POP-OFF certificates to those wanting a family size greater than replacement level, thereby stabilising the population and eventually reducing need for all manner of goods and services, including vacuum cleaners. Watch this space.
50
Limiting Vacuum Cleaner wattages is merely the tip of the iceberg of the EU’s more inane legislation.
There are a huge number of Euromyths [ Euromyths A-Z index put together by the EU so is rather self serving ] around that aren’t actually legislated for by the EU .
But the very fact that such myths exists let alone the fact that the EU has set up a blog just to try and counter these common Euromyths is very indicative in itself of the attitude and the total mistrust that the average European citizen now has in the honesty and integrity and understanding of the ordinary citizen’s desires for a life relatively free from bureaucratic coercion and politically imposed costly, unpopular and pointless imposts by the extraordinarily very well paid, high flying Eurocrats.
But some really stupid legislation and lots of it have come out of the Brussels headquarters of the EU , some of it so utterly inane and stupid that it became a laughing stock and a point of derision for the EU bureaucrats so was later and rather red faced and embarrassingly and belatedly withdrawn.
A rather famous 2008 example of the EU legislated requirement for the correct bends in bananas and cucumbers as outlined here from the New York Times.
_______________________
EU relents and lets a banana be a banana
[ quoted ]
BRUSSELS — In the European Union, carrots must be firm but not woody, cucumbers must not be too curved and celery has to be free of any type of cavity. This was the law, one that banned overly curved, extra-knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves.
But in a victory for opponents of European regulation, 100 pages of legislation determining the size, shape and texture of fruit and vegetables have been torn up. On Wednesday, EU officials agreed to axe rules laying down standards for 26 products, from peas to plums.
In doing so, the authorities hope they have killed off regulations routinely used by critics – most notably in the British media – to ridicule the meddling tendencies of the EU.
After years of news stories about the permitted angle or curvature of fruit and vegetables, the decision Wednesday also coincided with the rising price of commodities. With the cost of the weekly supermarket visit on the rise, it has become increasingly hard to defend the act of throwing away food just because it looks strange.
Beginning in July next year, when the changes go into force, standards on the 26 products will disappear altogether. Shoppers will the be able to chose their produce whatever its appearance.
Under a compromise reached with national governments, many of which opposed the changes, standards will remain for 10 types of fruit and vegetables, including apples, citrus fruit, peaches, pears, strawberries and tomatoes.
But those in this category that do not meet European norms will still be allowed onto the market, providing they are marked as being substandard or intended for cooking or processing.
“This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, European commissioner for agriculture, who argued that regulations were better left to market operators.
[more ]
11
Hence the push for genetically modified food. That’s the only way to ensure all your produce looks and feels as regulated (lets ignore the fact its flavourless and full of chemicals).
If it looks good on the shelf its a win!
20
And here we get d…heads like Leonardo DiCaprio doing this. Then this PROVES he’s a HYPOCRITE.
The gall of these EU plutocrats and sycophants like Caprio (who says Al Gore is his “father figure”) – WTF?
DiCaprio – His video refers to CO2 as a POISON!!
Just goes to prove you can’t put brains into bricks!!
What a friggen gold plated FOOL!!
Cheers,
51
We refuse to watch any movies that Leonardo DiCaprio appears in.
Can’t stand the mongrel !
41
Did DeCaprio ever make anything even worth watching..
I certainly don’t remember any !
21
Let’s see – halving the power will double the time needed to lift the dust, thus consuming the same amount of energy, everything else being equal.
Hmmmm, I wonder if I have it wrong somewhere ?
50
It’s actually worse than that.
With years of experience vacuuming I can tell you that some things are very difficult to lift with poor suction. Halving power will MORE than double the time it takes because you will be there scrubbing away to try and free things which better suction would simply lift.
This directive will definitely result in more power consumption.
110
Yeh You are probably wrong, Louis.
There is not much more energy needed to push a larger vacuum cleaner than a smaller one.
Plus the increased number of overlaps of the smaller cleaner to clean the same area.
On point two this probably means a potential increase in energy required to clean the same sized room at a wild ar**d guess of 25% more electricity required to clean the same area with a vacuum cleaner of half the size due to increased overlaps and the doubling up of the overlaps and previously cleaned carpet passes.
Then there is the time factor which will entail longer lighting and perhaps heating in rooms not ordinarily occupied for most of the day ie; bedrooms and etc.
This EU regulation could even increase power consumption for cleaning by 20% or 30% due to the inherent inefficiencies of using a smaller than the most
efficient sized machine or unit to to do the job, a factor that has been very extensively researched in industry and commerce for a couple of centuries past.
Its called in American lingo; shooting yourself in both feet as per the incompetent Wild West gun slingers.
Also a well known EU bureaucratic characteristic trait.
31
Hair dryers mentioned earlier are the most heinous of all apparatus used in the home. They are designed to not only make hot air, they make hot humid hair – a hot greenhouse gas, don’tcha know, and I would not be the least bit surprised to learn they are the entire source of UHI effect. They have to go. /sarc
20
so if it has less suck, it’ll take longer to do the job. Have they thought this through?
20
Its all a plot by the cleaning ladies (or men) to get more pay !!!
20
or,, to pay them less per hour..
It is coming from the Green Efficiency Agenda, y’know.
30
Any working girl could have told the EU that, seems they have the wrong class of people in their think tank.
If the word Gyppocrat hasn’t been used before then I just invented it and want an EU legislation thank you.
30
“Any working girl could have told the EU that”
I’m sure the EU’ocrats often have conversations with working girls. !!
10
Maybe not about vacuums..
or perhaps….. (No, behave yourself Griss, bad boy !)
10
Trust me it would be all conversation, there’s a few Special Officer Doofy types in the EU 😉
30
Some regulations is made to be cheated on. Next we will see vacuum cleaners sold without motors and electric motors sold separate for other purposes but fitting exactly. We just have a new business putting the stuff together for the end user. Some laws is just BS.
60
remember when UHI was being denied! of course, now it’s CAGW is making UHI worse:
21 Aug: Bloomberg: Tom Randall: If You Can’t Take the Heat, Get Off the Island
Sweaty subway brush-ups, the smell of garbage broth brewing in gutters, and most of all the heat — heat that radiates from everywhere and escapes to nowhere. That’s what New York typically feels like in August…
There’s a name for this particular municipal affront: urban heat islands. Asphalt and buildings absorb and radiate heat, and the lack of greenery means less shade and evaporative cooling. At its worst, New York can register 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than nearby rural areas (2.7 degrees hotter on average), according to a new report by nonprofit research group Climate Central.
Climate change is making the problem worse, cranking up the heat in cities even faster than in rural areas, according to the report…
Below are the top 10 most intense summer heat islands…
Click here for an interactive graphic showing detailed results for each city…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-20/if-you-can-t-take-the-heat-get-off-the-island-.html
00
18 Aug: Reuters: Nina Chestney: UK govt, green bank to invest in 74 mln stg Scottish renewables plant
Britain’s government and the Green Investment Bank plan to invest in a new renewable energy plant in Scotland, which will help power a well-known whisky distillery.
The project will cost a total of 74 million pounds ($124 million). The UK Treasury will raise up to 48 million pounds from a bond issue, while the Green Investment Bank and asset manager John Laing will each invest around 13 million pounds…
The plant will also produce nearly 77 GWh per year of heat, which will be sold to the nearby Macallan distillery to use in its processes to make Scotch whisky…
The biomass used in the plant will be by-products from the local forestry industry…
***Scotland votes on independence on Sept. 18 and many businesses have expressed concerns about what currency would be used in an independent Scotland…
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/08/18/scotland-renewables-distillery-idINL5N0QO21L20140818
***gotta love how Nina reminds everyone – in the final para – that there’s a vote on Scottish Independence coming up shortly. no connection between the vote and the “bribe”, though!
10
The Scots will go back to the bawbee where one bawbee is worth 0.001 English pence. That will get them off their bludging mendicant backsides and working as the bulk of their “social services” comes from the dreadful mob south of Hadrian’s Wall. 🙂
We could always send Senator Dougie Cameron back to help them.
30
There is probably some scope for increasing the efficiency of the actual blower part of a vacuum cleaner. As a friend of mine once said over the disassembled vacuum cleaner “I think this was designed as a siren”. A good vacuum cleaner has a high suck to noise ratio (s/n).
But why is anyone surprised at more Eurolunacy? These are the folks who forced lead free solder on the electronics industry amongst other things(a really, really stupid idea).
There is of course no answer. Feudalism is one natural stable state for societal organisation. The vast majority just want to be told what to do and think. The Lord of the manor doesn’t mind if his peasants grumble as long as they don’t come for him and his family with rope, pitchforks and torches. The EU is a velvet cage and the peasants are fat, dumb and happy. Why would anything change? Unless and until they run out of money to keep this running or are overrun by outside forces. It may be instructive to review the success of attempted revolutions inside a country without foreign power help. It won’t take long. The American Revolution wasn’t one.
31
“The White Zone is for loading and unloading only!”
Frank saw it all coming…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe's_Garage
20
Yes, yes, the EU is courageously decisive on vacuum cleaners etc, but craven cowards when it comes to dealing with immediate threats to security.
10
There’s something a little strange about all this.
It seems that the new legislation in Europe is aimed at getting people to use lower power vacuum cleaners, and perish the thought that this joke of a policy comes here, but as surely as night follows day, it will.
Luckily power supply in Europe is the same as it is here in Oz 230/240 Volts at 50Hz, while in the US it is 115/120 Volts at 60Hz, so electrical equipment is manufactured differently for the US as it is for Europe/ Australia.
My good lady wife has always used (bagless, big distinction here) Uprights, and in the main, they have consumed around 1600 to 2000Watts of power, eg 240 Volts by the current draw of the machine itself.
She is now, just like I am as well, aging, and pushing around conventional Uprights is awkward because of the head design of the cleaner itself, and they are also quite heavy at around 7.5 to 8.5 Kilos, again making them even further unwieldy for small framed people as my good lady is.
So, I went and did some research, attempting to find a lightweight Upright that was a little more manoeuvrable, and the obvious choice was those (relatively) new Dysons, and here I settled for the DC-50 Multifloor, the full sized ‘baby’ of their range of Uprights. They are around 2.6KG lighter than those older style vacuums, and that really counts here.
She thought it odd that I should be the one to decide on a new vacuum cleaner, what with her being the one who does the vacuuming, and hey, I could never quite do it as good as she could, she, umm, mentioned to me, so it got left for her to do.
So, I bit the bullet, and shelled out the enormous cost, and the RRP is around $750, but with all the electrical retailers having Sales to outdo the other guy, and luckily here in Rockhampton, there are 6 of the ‘big guys’, so I just shopped around them on the Internet and got the best price I could, in this case, $550, and even so, that’s way over the odds for vacuum cleaners here, let alone the $750 RRP.
She just loves it, so easy to use and so light, and sucks like all get out. She didn’t believe the first load we got out of the machine, even after only one week from the previous clean with the old machine, more dust than I had seen in any vacuum cleaner after a normal run through the home.
However, unlike all the old machines, and any electrical product for that fact, this new Dyson has no small plate indicating the power specs, so again, I chased that up as well.
This Dyson sucks 6 Amps out of the ‘hole in the wall‘, hence 1440Watts, which is still way over the power consumption this new legislation is aimed at.
Try explaining what this new power consumption means to your favourite vacuum cleaner operator at your home, mentioning that less power equals less, umm, suck, and see the expression on their face, with the first comment being ….. ‘Well, they’ll never sell then!’
Vacuum cleaner power consumption. Now there’s a way to reduce power consumption.
Give me strength.
These idiots have no idea whatsoever.
Tony.
41
Oreck makes a light and powerful upright, although not bagless.
10
WANTED!
LOST!
Man Made Apocalyptic Global Warming
The doomsday heat, once spotted in hiding in the Pacific Ocean by 97% of settled consensus climate scientists …
August 29, 2013: Scientist says climate mystery is solved
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3836522.htm
Has now morphed to …
22 AUG 2014: Global warming ‘hiatus’ heat is hiding in Atlantic Ocean
“A separate team of scientists writing in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday said that factors including swings in the sun’s output and sun-blocking dust from volcanic eruptions may account for gaps in understanding the warming trends.
In addition, La Nina cooling events in the Pacific Ocean had played a role, according to the report that examined why computer models of the climate had over-estimated temperature rises in the past decade.
But no one knows for sure.”
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/08/22/4072365.htm
. . .
Egad.
Even more concerning is Tony Abbott. Bill Shorten, Christine Milne and every politician in Australia, expects us to believe this.
I say your science is crap, Tony Abbott.
Stop the fraud.
21
Hmm bet mercedes will be allowed to keep selling big engined cars that the beaurocrats love to drive around in.
30
Doesn’t worry me, I hoover twice a year whether I need to or not. Might go up to three times now.
Where does most of the power go in a decent vacuum cleaner? to beating the carpet, or to maintaining the flow of air which the beaten-out particles enter, or something else? It is worth considering the design of these things more closely; they are not all the same.
Nowadays with smaller-capacity cisterns you need to flush the toilet twice after a dump – at least with the toilet paper needed too. That regulation has been counter-productive. Maybe they will make it illegal to flush twice in 60 seconds, and have radio-controlled toilet monitors that inform the government? Smart metering and smart freezers mean that THEY can turn off your freezer nowadays. someone is going to sue somebody for getting salmonella eventually and that one will come to a head.
The USA is not immune either. I’m told that top-loading washing machines are now unavailable there for similar reasons, although they are asserted (I don’t know) to be better.
30
Some water utilities in Germany (who also run waste-water) are asking their residents to flush twice in order to keep the big jobs flowing to the waste water treatment plant.
Cities and towns with older sewerage mains are falling apart due to the lack of flow and the buildup of gases; including H2S which is not only toxic, but also explosive and, when dissolved in water (on all surfaces of a wet environment like a sewerage mains), forms H2SO4 – sulphuric acid. Ladders at access covers (previously known as “manholes”), etc which have were safe to use 20 years ago; after up to 100 years, are now dangerously corroded and maintenance crews have to decend with full breathing aparatus on IMPROVISED devices and with safety ropes; making them much less effective than in the past.
Where residents refuse to flush, maintenance crews have to use mains water via the fire mains on a regular basis to help flush the gunge towards water treatment. There is no saving of water. Just a greater waste of time, effort and dangers to those working to maintain waste water systems; and to some extent, if there are explosions, the possibility of a mess when the toilets in the street “burp”.
30
Scheisse!
00
Sounds like a job for The WC !!!
It needs flushing all the time.
00
The electricity consumed in hoovers and other household appliances all ends up as heat anyway, and what THEY haven’t taken into account is that in many climates this means we use the fan heater a bit less or turn the central heating down sooner. Only in summer is it ‘wasted’.
30
Progland sucks.
00
How about the novel idea of having areas in each neighbourhood for communal cleaning of carpets over, let’s say, washing lines using beaters.
This would save a lot of electrical energy then all that would be needed would be a communal machine that sucks the dust and pollutants out of the air. Energy rationing advocates and EPA appeased. /sarc
10
[…] EU bans good vacuum cleaners – next big kettles, hot irons? […]
10
Let’s see, I use the 2200 watt vacuum cleaner for 30 minutes to do the cleaning – net, 1.1kwhr. They remove my 2200 watt machine and force me, in time, to a 900 watt machine. Now I vacuum for 1.5 hours to get the same amount of dirt removed – net, 1.35kwhr. Man am I really saving energy or what? or was that supposed to be “or watt?” Either way, looks like people on your side of the pond need to reconsider what kind of government you really want – one you can vote out when you’re unhappy with their decisions, or one that just says shut up and do what we tell you.
ON MY side of the pond, we can at least pretend to vote our government out if it screws up, and if we could go back to paper ballots where you can do real recounts from and not use touchscreen voting machines, we might even be able to ELECT a different government. As it is, climate science is an excellent example to go by – you get what the programmers program, and in a touchscreen voting machine, that may be nothing like what you intended.
10
FOLLOW THE MONEY – Which firms (or countries hosting same) will benefit from the new edict? THis isn’t about bureaucracy, it’s gotta be about corruption.
00
This is no surprise really, since last week Greenies were trumpeting the Max wind has ever delivered is about 340 Watts per household. Just means well all take longer to do the housework. Green jobs anyone .
00
Britain delivers power at 240 Volt while Europe uses 220 Volt, giving 19% more Power from the same appliance in GB. Hence Kettles do boil faster ion UK , than Europe. Perhaps that’s why kettles have never really taken off on the continent.
00
Power demand used to surge at the end of major sporting events, such as eg. Miss World, when everyone would put on the jug for a cuppa.
00
Theoretically UK voltage has not been 240 for a number of years now. European voltage has been standardised at 230v nominal since 1994.
In fact this is a cludge as the allowed tolerances meant that no changes had to be made to generating equipment.
Sorry can’t show the references but Google will find them.
00
European Standards are typically a bit of a cludge. A form of words or widened tolerance bars to give the impression of harmonisation, while most carry on as they were doing before. Meanwhile it lets real shody equipment into the market, such that it is eg. hard to find a new wireline phone that sounds half decent anymore.
Hence the CE moniker attached to all products now sold in the European States.
00
Before I retired I was doing software to run equipment intended, among other places, for sale in the EU and I remember the CE mark, the EU compliance symbol we had to put on it. Some of the requirements seemed rather ridiculous to me, just picky little details for the sake of writing regulations. For instance the light in the power switch that indicated it was on had to be one specific color, green. I always wondered if there was anyone anywhere with enough intelligence to turn something on and off who would not recognizes a red or blue light to mean the same thing. It was similar with some of the internal high voltage safety issues and things that would pass muster in the U.S. were not good enough but had to be done only the one authorized way.
Our engineers were pulling out their hair trying to change things that would be OK here into what the EU wanted. Regulators are nuts.
10
Picky regulations ? Believe me it was worse under the old regime in GB, well in telecoms anyway. I remember driving one Aussie hardware designer to an early retirement with the requirements to get connection approval . His successor was inspired to send us a Dirty Harry poster captioned:- ‘Go Ahead. Make One More Change’ , as testing kept throwing up ever more esoteric non-compliances.
The EU regulations are by comparison mainly self – certified.. The CE mark is essentially to indicate it won’t kill you and the vendor won’t be thrown in jail for selling it if it does.
Theses were formed on the principle, let the market decide , whereas the recent meddling in the market initiatives wrt. Lightbulbs etc. These come from a different quarter.
00
I love it! 🙂
Regarding EU’s CE mark being self-certified — I always got the impression that if they ever opened up something and found non compliance with any requirement, our European subsidiary would feel sanctions of some kind. For comparison, the UL certification in the U.S. means that Underwriters Lab has agreed to insure the manufacturer against liability for certain things. So with money at stake UL tests your product extensively and sometimes destructively in the case of motors and power supplies to see what happens. Locked rotor and dead short are demanding tests. The result may be a lot of smoke but they can’t set your house on fire. Manufacturers pay a pretty penny for UL certification so they likewise have incentive to get it right. UL only certifies consumer products however, not the kind of industrial stuff we did.
00
Recently our cable TV company dictated a switch that requires a converter box. The box is quite small and the label says 6 Watts, maximum power consumption. But I’ve never seen anything that gets so hot. After I had set them up I had to pick one up. The bottom surface was almost too hot to hold onto it (they never shut off). The UL certification is on the label, hot or not.
I got both converters off the plastic base of the TVs because long term exposure to that much heat isn’t so good for some plastics. I don’t know what UL’s requirements are re maximum operational temperature but this stuff needs a heat sink in my opinion. But that, of course, wouldn’t be so aesthetically pleasing, would it?
00
That was after getting him to make dozens of special mu-metal cans to enclose all the speech transformers , to cut out cross talk that actually turned out to be coming from a badly terminated line on the test house’s rig. I never had the heart to tell him that last bit though.
00
and you have heard the one which I first learned from a colleague involved in writing European Standards, about CE standing for Caveat Emptor ?
00
Or Caveat Emptyor in the case of vacuum cleaners, well the bagless variety anyway.
Who knows what sort of dust may have been sucked into that filter you’re shaking out.
00
Had to clean up styrene containing dust from sanding synthetic wood filler yesterday. Didn’t use a Hoover as we still refer to them over here, for that very reason.
00
Solution is in the pipeline. Recycle the exhaust air. The researches/inventors are diverting the exhaust air into the power head after pressure reduction by increasing the entry area within the head. These people can’t get these machines to the market place. Dyson are aware of this tech research. Work it out – the air coming out of the vac exhaust is warm/hot = wasted energy.Google “closed cycle vacuum cleaners” they can explain it a lot better than I can.
cheers
00
The problem here is that like many of the warmist memes, it’s misguided.
The idea of limiting the power of the motors is to reduce electricity consumption, however what they completely miss is that the lower wattage motors produce a less efficient cleaner with the end result of it needs to be used for longer to achieve the same level of effectiveness.
It’s a bit like a small engined car with a heavy load being less efficient than a larger engined car working at it’s design capacity.
The other thing they miss is that a less effective cleaner used more to achieve the desired level of cleanliness will wear out sooner and therefore need replacing more often resulting in additional environmental damage.
It is utter stupidity by bureaucrats without the common sense to see the wood for the trees.
10
Yeah and I’d go further to say that reducing the power say in half might even require more than double the amount of time for the job thus resulting in the exact opposite of what these lunatics “thought” their moronic idea would achieve.
And thinking on that further, say it was exactly double the amount of time and therefore the same amount of energy, the human is going to expend more energy doing the job so they have to eat more food. If the human eats more vegetables the human will emit more methane; more meat and there would have been more of the animals they ate that then emitted more methane. Plus, either way, more energy is required to bring the extra food home and cook it, etc.
I get the feeling we are arguing with people who have about as much intelligence as Colonel Bat Guano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s
So I won’t be surprised when they decide to attack one of the greatest sources of dust in order to reduce overall vacuuming energy consumption – trees! Sorry, trees produce all that pollen and debris so we have to cut them down to save the planet!
00
Bat Guano wasn’t so dumb. In hi-stress combat he’d inevitably think that a Brit (an outsider) was the problem. Sellers’ character failed to use the fact – which Guano had just disclosed – that it was a matter important enough for the President. That would hardly be the case if ‘preversions’ were going on at a single air force base. Re the vending machine, Guano actually complied with Sellers’ request, and was simply covering his ass.
00
Who needs a vacuum cleaner when the EU sucks.
00
[…] Vacuum cleaners: The childish lies of the EU. […]
00
It takes twice as long for a normal washing machine cycle on my new “efficient” model to what it did on my first “15” year old Hotpoint. Like others have stated previously, if you lower the wattage it will take longer to do the same job. As the EU have set these standards I hope “all” EU countries comply and not just the United Kingdom!
00