I replaced my old Focus 1.6 with a newer model Focus 1.8. All specs showed about the same mpg. In reality the old car did around 40mpg in all conditions and better than that on motorway runs keeping up with the traffic.
New model does 40mpg when the weather is warm, the engine has warmed up, the road is flat and I'm not doing over 60mph. On average it is
10% less fuel efficient than my old model even though I find myself driving it more carefully.Earlier this year the old AEG washing machine failed - well the bearings were going and it was 18yrs old so decided to replace. Nice Bosch with all those ECO markings. My year-on-year electricity useage is up. I can't set the machine to run off the timer so it is hard to keep within Economy 7. The machine doesn't have a hot water inlet so it can't use the hot water I've either generated in E7 or from the coal fire back boiler and the cycle is a lot longer.
Of course some of the usage could be due to the new freezer I had to buy in the summer - no surely not! It only holds 80% as much as the old one despite being the same outer dimensions. Can't stock up on one weekly shop anymore so have to do another mini-shop. Very ECO as the shops are 6 miles from where I live.
I see on gridwatch that coal + CCGT's are busy whilst another turbine objects to the wind blowing.
Where's commonsense and proper engineering when you need it?