Stupid energy ratings

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Tried to look at upright freezers (yet another drawer of our rather old Lec upright freezer has broken, and I'm not sure I want to buy spares, as I'd like a freezer that is a bit taller). So, popped into Comet (yuk, but it was nearest in Cambridge and several other places have closed recently)...

..Anyway, I laughed my head off at the stupid energy ratings on the freezers. There was a time when energy ratings went through the alphabet from A through to E (or something).

Now, though the, ratings charts look like this:

A++++ A+++ A++ A+ A B C D E

For heaven's sake, that's just f****** ridiculous. Why didn't the prats who invented the energy charts do so bearing in mind that in the future things would be better, and design them so that it take several decades for everything to "better than A"? Idiots...

Michael

[meow2222]

IIRC the top ones on that list aren't formalised, so mean very little. A1,= A2, A3 etc would be a lot more practical than A++++++++, which we'll have = in another 10 years. And simply stating the run cost per expected life woul= d make even more sense, using standardised conditions for comparison.

NT

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Ah, but it wouldn't mean much. As you know, half of the energy companies have annoucned in the last week or so that energy prices will be rising

6% or 7%...

Michael

[Andy Cap]

The ones I've looked at recently have shown the annual KW use, so the unit cost is immaterial when making comparisons.

Andy C

[Mr Pounder]

Good old freezers were Lec.

[Jethro_uk]

"This one goes up to 11"

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Our old Lec fridge and freezer (U061W) are OK apart from the weak hinge designs which eventually fracture withe the wear if you have lots of heavy bottles in the fridge door. Luckily I could swap them with the freezer hinges which of course are not stressed in the same way, without needing to look for spare parts.

Anwayy, you can't, it seems, buy a freezer made in the UK anymore. Apart from these people:

who only do *one* size of tall freezer which is far too short.

Or do Lec still make in the UK? Some freezers (I checked in Comet) indicate place of manufacture on the rating label, others don't. Lec's current range doesn't seem to include a freezer which is 1800mm tall.

I want to buy something made in the UK. It's getting more and more difficult. I haven't forgiven Hoover for refusing to tell me which of their washer/driers models were made at their Merthyr Tydfil plant so I could decide informed. Not surprised they closed it down with unhelpful attitudes to their customers like that. I actually got accused of possibly being a "spy" by trying to phone them to ask such a question!!! Prats.

Michael

[Andrew Gabriel]

A bit like A-level grades...

[meow2222]

Odd thing to say. The TCO over the appliance lifetime is precisely what one compares after all.

NT

[Andy Cap]

compares after all.

I meant the electrical unit is the same, not the item, so when calculating the running cost, the unit price is the same for all freezers. Therefore the consumption is the variable factor.

Yes of course when working out the TCO (assuming Total Cost of Ownership) the item price is relevant but then who knows what the life will be apart from reputation that is?

Andy C

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Complete boneheads. Otoh, easily got around by contacting somebody in MT town and asking them to ask someone who worked in the factory. Bit late now, of course.

[Michael Kilpatrick]

You know what? I emailed a district councillor (independent) who clearly wasn't interested in questioning the company who employs a number of his constituents. I tried to email a trade union who I knew represented the workforce there but that got nowhere either.

I also sent an email to the appropriate Assembly Member. Unanswered.

How much more was I supposed to do?

So, nobody really wanted to help me be a customer of a British factory making domestic products that everybody needs.

The only way I could have answered my question was by seeing a model in a shop and hoping it actually has a label stating its origin. Clearly, from my experience of fridges and freezers on display in Comet (Cambridge) yesterday, there's no guarantee of such an indication on the machine.

So, bugger Merthyr Tydfil. Nobody there wants my business. They can go and and rot in a pile of their screaming do-dos. Shame on them all.

Michael

[Andrew Gabriel]

Same here when I needed a new washing machine a couple years back. As far as I could tell, Hotpoint had the last UK washing machine factory, and I missed it by about 9 months, as their manufacture all got merged into Merloni/Indesit. Couldn't find anyone else manufacturing washing machines in the UK.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

A tale of woe, indeed.

[Tim Watts]

These days I look specifically for a "built in Germany" machine. Lost confidence in british a long time ago...

[Tim Watts]

Merthyr Tydfil? Yes - I feel the same having passed by to somewhere nicer

;->

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Sadly, the people who try first to see what British options are available before buying something made elsewhere are rather in a minority. People just don't care. And then they blame the government(s) for the unemployment figures. Hmmm.

Personally, as someone who grew up in Sheffield, I'd be pretty ashamed not to eat my dinner off Sheffield cutlery every evening given that I'm fortunate enough to afford whichever cutlery I wish. At least with cutlery, stainless steel is stainless steel is stainless still. It matters little beyond that if it's comfortable to hold. With a freezer, I'm not going to buy the only British freezer available if it's eighteen inches shorter than I want it to be! It's infuriating that I have not got that choice.

Is the whole of British manufacturing really down to the "only one left" position in every walk of life? For example there appears to be only one (Bulldog) manufacture of garden spades etc, now that Spear & Jackson and the others are all made abroad. My old Spear & Jackson has "Made in England" writ large on the handle. The identical model sold today in the garden centres has a conspicuous absence of any such labelling.

Michael

[polygonum]

Many years ago I bought a whole lot of Sheffield stainless cutlery. Nice to hold. Worked OK. But very poor quality in other ways - developed rust spots on most items.

In the last two or three years we have decided to replace much of the cutlery we were using (a mix of origins, adequate but not very attractive) and did, eventually, buy Sheffield. But we bought only a few items to begin with and only got more as confdence increased. If we had needed to buy a whole set at once I think Japanese might have won.

Am glad it worked out that way - but it was close.