November 3, 2023 MICHAEL IRWIN

Quick Overview of Energy Ratings for Home Appliances

When the time comes to update your home appliances, there are several aspects to considerate before actually settling for one of these products and taking them home with you, for instance, we know you wouldn’t like having a fridge that launched your electrical bill up to the sky, or a washing machine that uses more water than the oceans, seas, lakes and rivers have to offer.

Confused by energy ratings on appliances? This could be because they've changed! Say goodbye to some of the A++++ appliances - they're now typically B's or C's in the new A to G energy grade. View our quick video where Michael explains energy ratings on appliances.

It is crucial to find them on each one of the appliances you might consider buying if you want to cut your energy costs and overall energy consumption rate. These energy rating labels have been around for more than 25 years, with the sole purpose of supporting customers to search for and choose energy-efficient products, while also helping manufacturers and retailers develop more innovative and efficient products.

Energy ratings come in different formats, and it’s been made like that to help us decide better when buying appliances based on the long-term running costs and carbon emissions of the products that we use in our home (washing machines, TVs, fridges, freezers, air conditioners, etc…) However, sometimes, these labels might get confusing to understand and hopefully, this article will help you know them better since it is essential that you are presented with the information that allows you to make smart purchases that will have a positive impact on your life and on your wallet.

Until February 2021 all appliances were rated on a scale ranging from A+++ to D, where the products with the A+++ rating were the most energy-efficient and the appliances with the D rating had the poorest energy-efficient performance.

However, as a result of the development of more and more energy efficient and environment-friendly products, the classes above A (A+, A++, A+++) in energy labels visible in shops are already or will become saturated, making this labeling scheme less effective. The use of multiple ‘+’ signs reduces clarity, with most modern products being spotted in the top three classes. For example, roughly two-thirds of refrigerators and washing machines sold in 2006 were labeled as class A, whereas well over 90 % of those sold in 2017 were higher than class A, increasing the difficulty for customers when identifying the most energy-efficient products.

Due to these accuracy issues with the labeling scheme, the energy label was revised and improved by the EU, changing it to a simpler and clearer range: A (most efficient) to G (less efficient), removing the sometimes confusing and not too accurate ‘+’ signs. Beginning on March 2021, all refrigerators and freezers, washing machines and washer-dryers, dishwashers, TVs and displays adopted this new label, and from October 2021, light sources like lamps and bulbs were also relabeled.

This change not only presented customers with a clearer distinction of the energy-saving capabilities of appliances, but also encouraged companies and manufacturers to design better products that consume less energy, so, a win-win situation basically. This rescaling process might cause a product showing an A+++ energy efficiency class on the previous label to become a class C after rescaling, without any change in its energy consumption: the product remains the same. Also, class A will initially be empty to leave room for technological developments in the future. If you want to know more details about how the energy efficiency behind each of these letters displayed on the labels has been established, more information is available here: European energy labels: Rescaling and transition periods.

Now, besides the renewed labeling scheme and the standard kWh measure for energy consumption, the new label includes a QR code which links to additional product information and can be scanned with your smartphone, as well as new and improved icons that show ratings for useful information relating to the product category.

For instance, washing machines and washer-dryers will now include a rating for weighted water consumption and spin efficiency class, providing you with an easy scale to compare the different types of machines, models and brands; Refrigerators and fridge freezers will include information on total volumes of compartments, and the same scale for noise emission ratings as other kitchen appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers; while for TVs and Electronic displays such as monitors, energy consumption will now be detailed per 1,000 hours of use for both Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) and High Dynamic Range (HDR), making this easier to compare and calculate your consumption.

It is worth mentioning that a number of products such as air conditioners, heaters and tumble dryers are not yet using the updated label system but should be updated at a later date, unlike appliances such as ovens and cookers that will not be using the new energy rating labels as far as we know.

Other Benefits

Paying attention to energy labels can help you not only to buy better products, but even to get your property valued higher. How so? Well, a Building Energy Rating (BER) is a certificate that indicates your building’s energy performance in a very similar fashion to the energy label that our household appliances have, rating places on a scale of A to G, where A-rated buildings are the most energy efficient and will tend to have the lowest energy bills, while G-rated ones are the least energy efficient.

So, what we are trying to say is that you might wanna start paying more attention to this “sticker”, it can make you win or lose a few quids, and luckily, on our website you can very easily find these labels on each one of the home appliances that we sell, like seen below: