If you’ve been shopping around for a vacuum cleaner you’ll probably have noticed ‘energy-efficient’ labels stuck to the body of the machine. These environmentally-friendly cleaners are designed to use less energy to do the same job as traditional models. This should result in reduced household energy bills, which always gets a thumbs-up!
Many countries have now banned the use of powerful, energy-sucking household appliances and this includes vacuums rated above 1600 watts, but are there real benefits to low-energy cleaners?
A manufacturing challenge
The introduction of eco-friendly vacuum cleaners has obliged manufacturers to find innovative ways to create a product that allows people to hoover but uses less energy to do so. As a result, they’ve actually started creating models that required only 1000 Watts and even 800 Watts to clean thoroughly and efficiently. For the consumer, this meant their machine produced the same results but used much less energy to achieve them. Ultimately, this means another household appliance has been introduced that is not only kinder to the environment but will also help to keep utility bills down.
Performance through design
Thanks to the rise in home electronics, we’re consuming more energy and this is one of the reasons why it makes sense to use low-energy products. But manufacturers know that the design of the product, not the actual energy consumption, is what makes a difference to performance. To this end, some manufacturers have gone back to the drawing board to produce quieter models that feature a higher pick-up rate than traditional cleaners. There are also models that offer turbo features for deep cleaning, including pet hairs, which are hard to pick up.
Additional features
The new cleaners do come with some excellent additional specifications, including filtration layers to remove particles from the air when cleaning. This has been designed to help people who have allergies. New, 3D dust bags are also part of this process. Charcoal filtration is available on some models too to absorb odours such as pet smells, which can become ingrained in carpets. The features available will depend on the brand of cleaner and there will be price differences depending on the technology involved.
In some countries you now have no option but to buy energy-efficient vacuum cleaners. However, low-energy cleaners make financial sense when it comes to a cost-effective household purchase that’s also kinder to our planet.
** Image by Photographing Travis, used under Creative Commons licence