Fridges, freezers and fridge freezers getting new energy efficiency labels set to be introduced over the next couple of year and, from what we and the general press can see, they are set to further confuse people.
The new label scheme is planned as being an extension on the current A to G energy use labelling system. The A to G labelling system was adopted in the 1990s, but many manufacturers are now building appliances with energy efficiency better than the current A classification.
We think it’s pretty useless as you won’t find very many, if any, appliances now with a rating below “C”, so what’s the point of having an A to G scale?
The new labels look like the example shown to the right.
Under the current scheme, appliances rated as being more efficient than the current A rating are labelled as A+ or A++.
Using the new system those better than “A” rated would be classed as A-20% and A-40%, for products using 20% and 40% less power than A-rated products. However it’s very easy to see that many people could interpret this the opposite way around, it’s just not clear enough.
The new labels will be phased in over the next year and will become mandatory in September 2011
The refrigeration vote was won by a margin of four.
Following the European Commission’s plenary vote on EU Energy Labels, Ashleye Gunn, policy manager at Which?, said: ‘The introduction of a new energy efficiency label unnecessarily complicates a system that the vast majority of people understand and have happily used for years. What makes it worse is that only the labels on fridges will change, which will just confuse people further.
‘Without a clear and simple rating system consumers won’t know what to buy and there will be little incentive for industry to improve the efficiency of appliances.’