The faux
outrage that began over vacuum
cleaners has now spread to become a paranoid frightener about any household
electrical appliance, while the factual content of the coverage has fallen to
more or less zero. This was typified by today’s Express front page, howling “Now Kettles Face EU Ban”, which is
totally untrue, as is the sub-heading “Brussels
meddlers in another assault on our way of life”.
Wrong
The
article warns “THE British way of
life is under fresh threat from the EU as it targets the nation's kettles,
toasters and even lawnmowers”, and this, too, is totally untrue. We know
this as Full Fact has
perused the offering and concluded “Kettles
are still not about to be banned by the EU”. But the paper also known as
the Daily UKIP cares so little about
facts that it just carries on with the deception.
After pausing for a mention of the facts – “A report published by Deloitte and
commissioned by the European Commission, the EU's executive body, sets out
plans to look at the energy usage of a range of items and whether they could be
made more efficient” – and reminding readers “The final decision ... would be taken by the Member States”, the
clowns, sorry, pundits are summoned.
These dispense the most extraordinary drivel: Alan Murad of
Get Britain Out was typical. “Astonishing
... Luddites ... economic illiteracy” he spews, before spraying his cred up
the wall with “most high-wattage devices
are often more energy efficient than what they'll be replaced with”. If
they were energy efficient, they wouldn’t need to draw all that power. But he
then rallies to reel off the usual soundbites.
“The meddling in our affairs by unelected bureaucrats, the relentless
stifling of consumer choice, prove
the EU have [sic] no democratic
credentials to speak of. It is yet another assault on the British way of
life”. As it isn’t happening, that would be difficult. But there is a yet more
fundamentally stupid pundit on offer, Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy
Foundation.
You’ll love this: “There
is no example in history when any product technology has become more energy
efficient and this has led to a decrease in energy usage, in fact the opposite
happens”. Hello Benny! See that car of yours? Now look at its 1960s
predecessor. That 50 year old technology was lighter – hence it rotted away –
but had an engine just as big, if not bigger, than its modern equivalent.
That modern car will accelerate faster, has a faster top
speed, is much heavier (rotten EU standards to stop us getting killed by mobile
death traps, eh?), and yet it returns better fuel consumption figures. It has,
let us not drive this one around the houses for too long, become more energy
efficient over time, and this has led to a decrease in energy usage. That Benny Stupid Peiser said never happened.
Totally untrue story backed up by totally batshit pundits. What a load of rubbish.
7 comments:
The wattage of a device is a direct and unambiguous measurement of how much power it is consuming, the higher the wattage the more power it consumes, therefore a higher wattage device cannot be more energy efficient than a lower one. Apologies for stating the bleeding obvious.
@lx999, I know what you mean. A higher wattage item consumes more power than a lower-power one. But from a laws-of-physics point of view, it's not that simple. For example, a high-power kettle could boil water quicker, and use pretty much exactly the same amount of energy (higher power for less time). Maybe during that time less heat energy would be lost through the casing (tiny difference), but there are lots of other factors to consider. Maybe it has less thermal mass with its different sort of element, or even more importantly its design might allow smaller amounts of water. The worrying kettles are the ones which "keep warm", encouraging to you boil too much and keep topping up its temperature for too long. An energy certificate on those would be very revealing.
It's not entirely correct that increased energy efficiency leads to a drop in energy consumption - that only holds when there's also regulation to reduce energy usage overall. It's called Jevons Paradox. Efficiency gains on their own won't cut our energy consumption.
It's amazing. Scotland may vote for the break-up of the United Kingdom. There are no debates in Parliament. The only voices standing up consistently for the Union are from the opposition, Darling and Brown. The newspapers are full as always with the supposed loss of sovereignty to the EU - now represented by a fictitious ban on kettles. Tory EU sceptics threaten to pull out of the EU on account of a loss of sovereignty which will have survived withou major problems since 1972. But they are all dumb when it comes to the disintegration of the country. Who are the patriots now?
Anonymous 5 September 2014 15:00: -
Yes, when people buy more and more energy consuming products and use them for greater lengths of time. That was not the point of the Daily UKIP article though.
Anon on 5 Sept at 13:21,
The worrying kettles are the ones which "keep warm", encouraging to you boil too much and keep topping up its temperature for too long. We saw those at G20.
Seriously, how on Earth do kettles encourage people in the way that you suggest?
Power is measured in Watts, but efficiency has no direct relationship with the power. A higher powered device can be more efficient than a lower powered one.
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