Finally - Labelling That Shows The Greenest Appliances

There was some great news lately that from June this year new appliances will have to carry a new style of labels that better indicate how much power they use. Energy efficiency labels aren’t new. However on the new European Energy Labels there are finally two extra categories to indicate products offering outstanding performance: A+ and A++. The colour scheme for each category will be the same - the best performing products will be the darkest green, and the worst will be red. You’ll also be able to see exactly how much electricity each appliance uses every hour in kWh. The lower the figure, the more money and energy you’ll save. It’s also going to be compulsory for new appliances to carry them from June throughout the EU.

Having the A+ and A++ categories makes sense, as for many years most of the dishwashers and washing machines sold have reached the A rating. This means we can’t tell the better ones apart by using the old style A to G dark green to red rating. Putting in the kWh per hour also makes sense. Many people might think a B rating is quite good for a tumble dryer. What they can’t tell from the rating is that A rated dryers often use half the electricity of B rated ones. Which means quite simply the B rated machine costs twice as much to run.

On the subject of tumble dryers, the greenest and cheapest option is really simple. I use a clothes airer instead. Since I’m already paying to heat my home, I like to ‘double up’ by using the warmth to dry the washing as well. In the summer, I use a cleverly designed clothes drying tent. You can put it on the balcony or in the garden, go out to work and if it rains your clothes obviously stay dry. Both methods cost absolutely nothing to run and both significantly cut your carbon footprint.

Photo credit: 'Graph 1'by Christian Ferrari.