Energy Efficiency Labels
I was shopping around for LED light bulbs, and got very confused. We all know that old fashioned tungsten bulbs are very inefficient, and LED bulbs are much better. Well, I found two different LED bulbs for sale in Wilko, one with a A+ + rating, the other with a F rating.
What the F (rating)? LEDs can't be that inefficient can they?
I eventually figured out what was going on.
The EU's Energy Label is a shambles. The reason that the two bulbs have such different ratings is because the packaging of the "F" rated bulb is newer. The EU has drastically changed the rating system, but kept the same identifiers (the stickers looks almost identical, but their meanings have changed drastically). The new "F" rating is equivalent to the old "A" rating.
EU, are you trying to piss everyone off by making things as confusing as possible. If you want to introduce new standards, pick a new scale (1 to 8 for example, to make it clear that they are not comparable with the old A to F). Those who favoured Brexit, notice that we in the UK are now using the EU's labels, but presumably we have no say at all in how the standards are derived. In theory, we are "more sovereign" because we could set up our own standards, but in practice, we will use Europe's standards without having any part in defining them.
Okay, end of Brexit rant, back to poor labelling...
The problems don't stop there though. Underneath the rating, there is another number 2 kWh / 1000h. Think about those units for a moment. This bulb uses 2 kilowatt hours per 1000 hours. We can cancel the 1000 hours from the top and bottom, leaving us with what that number really is : 2 watts. Why does it not just say 2 watts? It makes no sense.
Looking at the pictures on wikipedia's Energy Label page, I see that for washing machines, it has units of kWh/annum. This makes sense. Assuming the packaging guesses correctly how often you use each of your appliances, you could spot which appliances use the most energy. For example, you could see at a glance how much energy your washing machine uses compared to your fridge. Somewhere along the line "per annum" morphed into "per 1000 hours", making the number meaningless.
There's one final gripe... What is the purpose of the labels? To encourage consumers to use efficient products, thus saving the planet. Why have they rated an LED as "F"? Because they want to encourage newer tech to be even more efficient. A laudable goal, but I think it is flawed...
The jump from old fashioned tungsten lamps to LEDs was a 10 fold increase in efficiency. If an old bulb used 10 units of energy, an LED uses only 1, saving NINE units of energy. On the new scale, this saving of NINE units of energy is the jump from new "G" rating to new "F" rating. How much more energy could I save if I found a bulb in new "C" rating? "C" is twice as efficient as "F", and I'd be saving a whopping HALF a unit. Efficiency improvements always have diminishing returns. Jumping from tungsten to LEDs, was 9 tenths of the way to perfection. Now we are only fiddling around the edges.
During this transition phase, people will be buying the "wrong" bulbs. For example, given the choice of "F" or "B", which should I choose? It's a trick question, because I didn't say which "F" I was referring to. New "F" is better than old "B".
The new ratings may also cause people to hold onto their inefficient equipment. I'm not going to buy a new "C" rated fridge, when my old "A" rated fridge still works. (But of course, we are comparing the old "A" rating which is much LESS efficient than the new "C" rating).
After the transition, IMHO you are just teaching people to ignore the rating systems, because everyone KNOWS that LED bulbs are efficient, and labelling them "F" won't change that. So when they buy a central heating system, a rating of "C" to "F" will be seen as "as good as" those high efficiency LED bulbs which also have a "C" to "F" rating. As I've already said, there are almost no more efficiency gains to be made in lighting, but there are still HUGE gains to be made in heating (heat pumps are the future... hopefully). So IMHO, we should have left the old ratings for lighting (ensuring that people who still insist on halogen know they are killing the planet), and focus on central heating systems, where we can still make big improvements.