wallywombat:
Does anyone have a link to credible information that the EU Commission and/or Parliament ever proposed limiting kettles to 500W? Ignoring Daily Mail type headlines, all I can find is that kettles were on the Ecodesign list of products scheduled to be examined to see if there was scope regulating their design for better energy efficiency.
You wont find it - the recommendation that is nearest is the ecodesign study (here) Still not law by the way, just a labelling system.
If you make a kettle that is 500W you will struggle to meet the A rating requirement, unless you lag it well, as efficiency is correctly tested by looking at electrical energy in divided by energy in the hot water out.
Unsurprisingly the faster you boil the easier it is to meet this requirement.
Very early in the consultation process there was a proposal document that implied that kettles should use 20% less electricity year on year, but then some engineering minded Germans got involved and that quickly got dropped in favour of restrictions on designs that have a standby 'keep hot' feature, and the overall efficiency in terms of the fraction of the heat leaving through the sides. It seems that the Daily Torygraph got hold of the early proposal , and still does not realise it has been dropped.
Limitations on the efficiency of motors in vacuum cleaners and hair dryers are genuine, but then there is a good reason for those.
Mike.
wallywombat:
Does anyone have a link to credible information that the EU Commission and/or Parliament ever proposed limiting kettles to 500W? Ignoring Daily Mail type headlines, all I can find is that kettles were on the Ecodesign list of products scheduled to be examined to see if there was scope regulating their design for better energy efficiency.
You wont find it - the recommendation that is nearest is the ecodesign study (here) Still not law by the way, just a labelling system.
If you make a kettle that is 500W you will struggle to meet the A rating requirement, unless you lag it well, as efficiency is correctly tested by looking at electrical energy in divided by energy in the hot water out.
Unsurprisingly the faster you boil the easier it is to meet this requirement.
Very early in the consultation process there was a proposal document that implied that kettles should use 20% less electricity year on year, but then some engineering minded Germans got involved and that quickly got dropped in favour of restrictions on designs that have a standby 'keep hot' feature, and the overall efficiency in terms of the fraction of the heat leaving through the sides. It seems that the Daily Torygraph got hold of the early proposal , and still does not realise it has been dropped.
Limitations on the efficiency of motors in vacuum cleaners and hair dryers are genuine, but then there is a good reason for those.
Mike.
We're about to take you to the IET registration website. Don't worry though, you'll be sent straight back to the community after completing the registration.
Continue to the IET registration site