April 2016
Featured in this insight: Chemicals, Climate change & environment, Electricity, Environment & sustainability, Gas, IT & telecommunications
Survey finds one fifth of home appliances use more energy than they advertise: A recent utilities survey of Europe’s home appliance industry has revealed that approximately one in five dishwashers, fridges, microwaves and other home appliances use more energy than they advertise.
One fridge freezer in the experiment was found to use 12 per cent more energy than it claimed to, whereas one of the tumble dryers was discovered to be consuming a notable amount of energy whilst supposedly switched off.
Led by the Energy Saving Trust in the United Kingdom, the research also discovered that digital radios were using more than double the amount of their states energy whilst switched off.
Of the 100 products in the research, 18 were found to be non-compliant with Europe’s ecodesign regulations. The ecodesign regulations were mainly implemented to reduce carbon emissions by curbing energy waste.
The efficiency tests approximate that deceptive energy claims by appliance manufacturers could cost consumers £8bn or €10.5bn in additional bills.
Clasp, the energy efficiency group, approximated a 10 per cent shortfall in the energy saving targets for appliances will translate to an additional 47m tonnes of CO2 reaching the atmosphere in the next four years.
Of the 18 companies who failed the tests in the survey, no one offered an explanation or justification of the test results when asked. The majority of the companies however displayed a transparent engagement with the issues and topics raised in the research.
Since the research was conducted, a handful of companies have implemented automatic software updates which can be downloaded by consumers.
The Energy Saving Trust’s technicians have suggested that the simplicity of which energy consumption can be altered, throws up concerns for them that software updates could possibly add to energy usage aswell.
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