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New EU Rules Will Limit Vacuum Cleaners To 1600W

Posted by timothy on from the sucking-power-defined dept.

AmiMoJo writes "New EU rules are limiting vacuum cleaner motors to 1600W from 2014/09/01. The EU summary of the new rules explains that consumers currently equate watts with cleaning power, which is not the case. Manufacturers will be required to put ratings on packaging, including energy efficiency, cleaning efficiency on hard and carpeted floors, and dust emissions from the exhaust. In the EU vacuum cleaners use more energy than the whole of Denmark, and produce more emissions than dishwashers and washing machines."

19 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Do the math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    1600W is about two horse powers, and if you think you can keep a house clean with two horses running though it, I have a barn to sell you.

    1. Re:Do the math by Bert64 · · Score: 3, Informative

      In the EU, 240V outlets are the standard not anything special. Generally appliances (at least in the UK) have up to a 13A fuse in them, and you may have a higher capacity hard wired circuit for the stove (the dryer is almost always just plugged into a standard wall outlet).

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    2. Re:Do the math by dunkelfalke · · Score: 5, Informative

      In the EU 230V outlets are standard (IEC 60038). 240V is UK (as always, they absolutely have to be different from everyone else) and Cyprus (as a former British colony).
      Actually, most of the former EU countries used to have the 220V standard, but it was raised to 230V so it would be more compatible to UK.

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    3. Re:Do the math by Teun · · Score: 5, Informative
      Uh no, since the year 2000 all of the EU, that includes the UK, runs on 230V.

      The UK has not changed it's 13 Amp plugs but the domestic circuits can be up to 40 Amp, on the continent they are typically 16Amp, meaning you can pull up to 3600 Watts.

      There are manufacturers selling 2000-2200 W. vacuum cleaners.

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    4. Re:Do the math by anarcobra · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I love them. And I will try to keep getting them. If the problem is that people equate cleaning power with Watts, they should mandate some measurement of cleaning factor instead of maximum power. Then people can determine if they want the 2100 W vacuum cleaner, or the 1600 one with the same cleaning factor. I see what happens at other peoples houses. They have their eco vacuum and the cat hair just stays on the floor if you don't pas over it 10 times. It's the same thing with all their washing machines. In the US washing my clothes takes about 1 hour for washing and 40 minutes for drying. In the EU with all their eco washing machines it takes 2 and half hours for washing clothes (one and a half for quick) and 80 minutes to dry it. Is it more eco-friendly? I'm sure it is. But in return I have to actually plan out when I'm going to wash my clothes because it takes twice as long. Maybe I just have a bad washing machine, but all the ones I've used here are like this.

    5. Re:Do the math by zephvark · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There are manufacturers selling 2000-2200 W. vacuum cleaners.

      I can't wait for those to be gone. Not because of the energy usage really, but because those monsters are incredibly loud.

      I might point out that the power of the vacuum cleaner has no relationship to its noise level. The noise is considered a selling point, a feature, because people have this curious tendency to think, "oh yes, that's causing me permanent ear damage, so it must be doing a good job." People conflate noise with power.

      Don't ask about the dust in the corner. I'm protecting my ears. I swear it.

    6. Re:Do the math by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Informative

      It was 240V +/- 6%. They did actually use those tolerances. Quite a lot of people had a supply lower than 230V or above 250V. Now it's 230V+10%/-2% which isn't a perfect overlap but only a few areas were outside of that range so it wasn't too much to fix.

    7. Re:Do the math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      My 2kW Miele is the quietest vacuum I've ever had, even at full power (which you wouldn't normally use). It about rivals my GPUs with the fans ramped up.

    8. Re:Do the math by schlachter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know about that. We bought a high end Miele vacuum cleaner and it's very quiet. We viewed that as a premium feature when we bought it.

      I think what you're saying might be true for the uneducated, lower end of the market.

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  2. This sucks by exabrial · · Score: 4, Funny

    /me shows self to door

  3. Waaah. by wolrahnaes · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the US our consumer-grade vacuum cleaners are already effectively capped around the same wattage. The standard household electrical outlet is rated to provide 15 amps and does so somewhere between 100 and 125 volts. That's 1500-1875 watts as the maximum any single device clet an expect to pull without requiring a special outlet. Nothing in reality expects the higher end of the spectrum because it's by no means guaranteed.

    Somehow we get along just fine, residential or commercial, with pretty much the same as what this limit allows. /me awaits some Brit who's come to explain how their 240v 13A outlets allow them to suck the carpet right off the floor with their cleaners.

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    1. Re:Waaah. by Shimbo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Somehow we get along just fine, residential or commercial, with pretty much the same as what this limit allows. /me awaits some Brit who's come to explain how their 240v 13A outlets allow them to suck the carpet right off the floor with their cleaners.

      Actually, we use them mostly to take out drones and deflect NEOs into a safer orbit.

    2. Re:Waaah. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Funny

      I threw my old 2300W one away. It was just gathering dust.

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    3. Re:Waaah. by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't think I ever saw an electric kettle in the US. People who drink coffee make it in a coffee pot, and people who drink tea are deported to Europe.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    4. Re:Waaah. by jonbryce · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because the sort of things you see on sale in Best Buy in the US are the sort of things you can only find in museums in the UK. Things like stove-top kettles and top-loading washing machines.

  4. Re:Obamacommunistsilluminatiderp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They can have my 2000watt vacuum cleaner when they pry my cold dead hands...

    Try switching it off; you're lucky it's only got you by the hands.

  5. The future uses less by maweki · · Score: 4, Informative

    My Roomba is using about 30 Watts for its vacuum and that is more than enough.

  6. Re:They've gone nuts with Wattage. by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fire hazards are not directly linked to wattage. It's all about overheating. Bigger power motors are bigger (surprise) and are capable of withstanding more heat because of it.

    Additionally higher wattage does not mean more power use in an ordinary scenario. An induction motor will still only draw the amount of power needed to get it spinning to the correct speed. Take a 1400W vacuum and a 2400W vacuum and put them on the carpet they'll likely draw the same amount of power.

    Now quite critically when you block the suction pipe that's when the differences become evident. Most vacuums have a relief valve which will allow it to suck air in after a certain pressure is reached. This RV will dictate the amount of power that the vacuum sucks and if sized correctly the motor will still not draw its full rated current. What will happen in reality is the higher rated motor will have a lower minimum suction pressure and a lower set RV.

    Where the entire mess catches fire is either:
    a) Stupidly set RVs
    b) Lack of overload protection for the motor.
    c) Stupid design of the vacuum that doesn't provide adequate cooling (I've had a hot air gun catch fire in my hand once due to such brain dead design, that tip will never get hot, lets support it with plastic. What could go wrong.)

    This doesn't excuse the stupidity of selling a 2400W vacuum, but power does not directly equate to fire hazard.

  7. US Energy Star and vaccuum cleaners by dkegel · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The US doesn't have Energy Star standards for vacuum cleaners yet, but they're thinking about it.

    http://www.energystar.gov/ia/p... says
    "[Assuming efficiency improvements of 16% to 33%...] Estimated per-unit annual savings for residential vacuums are on the order of 10-19 kWh/year... Considering there are approximately 28 million vacuums sold in the U.S. each year, the national energy savings opportunity would be on the order of 67,000-135,000 MWh per year if 25% of products sold were replaced with energy efficient models"

    Contrast that the the document linked in TFA:
    http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regu... says
    "[Vaccuum cleaners sold per year in 2005 and 2020: 54 million and 92 million]... [Energy consumed by vacuum cleaners under business-as-usual by 2020: 29.7 TWH/year]... by 2020, the annual electricity consumption ... of vacuum cleaners will be reduced by 19 TWh"

    So, 67 TWh annual savings in US vs. 19 TWh annual savings in EU in spite of twice as many vacuum cleaners sold per year in the EU. Is there just more dirt in the US? Or was the Energy Star scoping report just overoptimistic?