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The shortcoming is that governments are not nimble enough to revise regulations as often as needed. Laws may need years to formulate, but regulations/quantified
by blue_devil 7y ago
The shortcoming is that governments are not nimble enough to revise regulations as often as needed. Laws may need years to formulate, but regulations/quantified guidelines should be updated more regularly.
>Current regulations are seen to be outdated, with more than 55% of washing machines sold in the EU ranked A+++ on the label.
- adrianN 7y agoThe energy rating problem could have been easily avoided by giving out labels according to consumption percentiles. The top 10% of the models on the market get an A, etc. But I assume that manufacturers wouldn't be happy about that.
- blue_devil 7y agoExactly. They are willing to regulate, but slowly, inefficiently, and timidly.
- epanchin 7y agoThat would encourage manufacturers to lower the efficiency of non flagship models. How about just regrading every few years? Potentially add a number to the start.
- adrianN 7y agoThat's a good point. You could avoid that problem by giving grades relative to the best product on the market, e.g. anything that doesn't use more than 10% more than the most efficient model on the market gets an A. Regrading every year seems to be about the same as what I propose. I guess the actual numbers used for the current rating are based on actual efficiencies of the models on the market when the regulation was introduced.
- tomatocracy 7y agoOnly if consumers pay any attention to energy efficiency labels. I strongly suspect that with washing machines and dryers, they simply ignore them and look instead at the other features (particularly load size and cycle timing) and the price.
- mehs 7y agoThat means energy efficiency rating will change by date, A rated product of last year could be different (could be better or worse) by this year's A rated product. Can't we just use "numbers" instead?
- twanvl 7y agoThese ratings would change over time, so an A+ rating in 2017 would not be the same as an A+ rating in 2019. I think that is very confusing. Is a second hand A rated model better than a new D rated one? Who knows.
- adrianN 7y agoI find that perfectly fine. Why should an old model retain its A rating when in fact it consumes a lot of energy compared to a newer model? Just print the actual consumption on the sticker to make comparisons between older stickers and newer stickers possible.
- Tomte 7y agoNobody updates those ratings, though.
- tomp 7y agoThe regulations are stupid in the first place. Instead of energy rating why not just have energy use directly?! Similar to how refrigerators have noise levels directly in dB, not in some imaginary regulatory unit. In addition, many people hate highly-energy-efficient washing machines, as the washing cycles takes hours... efficient in energy, but inefficient in human life.
- untog 7y ago> In addition, many people hate highly-energy-efficient washing machines, as the washing cycles takes hours... efficient in energy, but inefficient in human life. That's literally the reason for governments to regulate this kind of thing, though. When everyone looks at things through the lens of their own personal life... what's the big deal? Just one person using more energy. But when every person does it, it is a big deal. So government acts to force a level playing field for all. Everyone ignores the cumulative good and instead focuses on the inconvenience to their personal life.
- tomp 7y agoSure lets ban cars and planes too. /s That's obviously the wrong solution. The correct solution is to price things correctly. If energy is precious, increase energy prices. Some people will choose to fly, others will choose to have faster washing cycles...
- untog 7y ago> Some people will choose to fly, others will choose to have faster washing cycles... And all will damage the climate? "Increase energy prices" just means that rich people will be able to continue to engage in undesirable behaviour while the poor will not. Why is that a desirable income? Why should a poor person have to pay more to heat their home in winter so that a rich person can wash their clothes more quickly? Not all energy use is equal.
- dagw 7y agoWhy should a poor person have to pay more to heat their home in winter so that a rich person can wash their clothes more quickly That can be solved with tiered pricing. Your first N kWh a month are cheap and then the price ramps up quickly.
- makomk 7y agoThe other shortcoming is that the way that washing machine manufacturers have achieved those energy ratings is by making their wash cycles longer and slower, effectively making them less useful to consumers.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoLong cycles are great for getting stuff out. It's the lukewarm "hot" water that people take issue with. Energy ratings for washing machines are kind of stupid in the first place since they depend so strongly on how you use the machine and the efficiency of your hot water supply. The electricity used on the motor is fairly negligible.
- makomk 7y agoThat's one of the other side effects of the energy ratings - pretty much no washing machine in Europe these days has a hot fill inlet anymore, so any hot water used by the machine is produced internally using the electric heating element.