Other appliances

Vacuum cleaners

Energy labelling is being extended to include vacuum cleaners. The power of the vacuum cleaner is often a selling point — but for power you can also read energy-usage. So a 2kW vacuum cleaner actually uses as much electricity as a typical two bar electric fire.

With the move to energy labelling there is likely to be a lot of product innovation as machines are made more efficient. Some already sell at least partly on their energy-efficiency with several models using less than a kW of electricity, with at least similar performance to more powerful models. Others offer several settings so you can choose a lower power setting. It is worth shopping around especially if you are a frequent vacuumer.

Waste disposal units

Food Waste Disposers (FWDs) represent one of the most efficient ways of recycling food waste, to produce energy or fertilizer.  A convenient, hygienic and user friendly appliance, that fits neatly under the kitchen sink,  they can grind practically all food waste to minute particles that are easily carried away by the wastewater system, directly to sewage treatment and anaerobic digestion (AD).  Here, increasingly both biogas and fertiliser are extracted. Driven by a small motor, they use minimal energy and water, and food waste is so rich in biogas each FWD can generate 25 times the energy it consumes.  As the food waste never leaves the kitchen they reduce the need for additional rubbish collections,  traffic congestion, fuel consumption and vehicle emissions.  For further information please visit AMDEA FWD Group www.food-waste-disposer.org.uk

Electric showers

Having a shower typically uses less energy than running a bath (possibly unless you are a teenager). Electric showers heat the water at the point of use and so don’t leave hot water gradually to cool in pipes or the hot water cylinder if unused. They make particular economic and environmental sense if you heat your main water supply using oil or an electric immersion heater.

Electric kettles

Boiling water doesn’t take very long but it does use a lot of energy whilst the water heats up. The average UK household uses more electricity to boil kettles than to run the washing machine. It’s easy to waste energy by over-filling the kettle – using a modern energy-efficient kettle can help you to avoid this by managing the amount of water inside the kettle that is heated each time.