Free Delivery | On orders over £60* | Shop Now!
The Way The Energy Efficiency Of Products Is Rated Is Changing & Here’s Why:
Just in case you are not already aware and this is completely new news to you, the way that bulbs and electrical appliances are rated in the UK and EU is changing (and let us tell you, it’s not a small change either!).
This change has come about due to the increased demand for more environmentally friendly products and with the way that electrical appliances and goods are currently rated, it can be extremely difficult to identify which products are the most energy efficient when looking at the current energy label that is present on the market today.
This is because with the current way electrical appliances are rated, thanks to innovation and technology improving while the previous regulation for energy ratings remained the same, the majority of LED and electronical products available today have achieved a rating in the top 2 or 3 classes (A to A++); resulting in a loss of clarity and making it harder to identify the most energy efficient goods among the masses.
To make it easier to help you find the right product for you and your needs, these classes have now been reviewed and improved to make things simpler.
So if you purchase a bulb currently rated A++, don’t be alarmed if the packaging you receive bearing the new label tells you the bulb has an energy rating of E!
It’s still energy efficient, it’s just that the new energy label has a much higher and broader lumen to watt ratio (the higher this ratio is, the more energy efficient the product is); leading to the banding on the new energy label changing drastically in comparison to the old one.
To put things in simple terms, the lumen to watt ratio (lm/W) for a class A++ product on the old label was 120 and the lm/W for an A+ rated product was 55. On the new scale, a class E energy rated product has a lm/W of 110 and a band F has a lm/W of 85:
As you can see, the letters may be completely different but the energy efficiency of your product has not changed.
The old energy label ranges from A++ to G. As of March 2023, it will be the legal requirement for all electrical appliances to bear the new energy label, which ranges from a much simpler, A to G:
This scale is much simpler and stricter to ensure that a very limited number of products can attain the most energy efficient classes (A and B) in the market today, leaving space for technology to further evolve and allow for even more top tier energy efficient products to enter the market gradually in the future. You will find that the products that are currently classed as the most energy efficient in the present market will typically now have an energy rating of C or D on the new energy label, due to the way the banding is classed.
The banding is also not the only thing that has changed on the new energy label. A QR code has now appeared (this is now also a legal requirement), so you can scan the label through a smartphone device to access further information on the product. This code takes you to a highly detailed product information sheet which is registered in the European Commission's EPREL database, so you can rest assured, this sheet will contain all the information you could possibly want to know.
In summary, this label change has come about due to the energy efficiency of electrical products radically improving and so, the new labelling and rating system hopes to reflect this and make this information easier to understand at a glance, so you can make the right decision for you when it comes to purchasing a new electrical appliance or product for your home.
If you would like to find out more on this energy label change, please click the button below which will take you to a press release article on the new energy labels, written by the European Commission: