Re: 20 year old tech...
"there are games being played over vacuum cleaner and kettle power consumption in the name of 'greenness' within the EU standards-setting forums"
The standards there have bloody good reasons to exist:
Cleaners were getting stupidly large motors with quite poor air-power inefficiency and you DON'T need to boil 2 litres of water to make a cup of coffee (my Brevillle boiler does a cup in 20 seconds, Fast enough and I've had it 20 years)
BRITISH patents for vacuum cleaners which can be extremely effective whilst reducing power over older designs by 80% AND reduce the spray of 10-micron particles had been utterly ignored by UK makers for over 20 years (I had a lot of discussion with the holder, telling him to stop being "patriotic"/sentimental and start being pragmatic, which paid off for him)
Those air recicrulating deisgns started hitting mainstream in the mid 2010s instead of being DIY mods (the original design took the exhaust of a standard upright vacuum cleaner and dumped it into the carpet just in front of the beater brush, This simple mod dropped power consumption by aboout 30% by reduciing total motor load and blasted dust out of the carpet at the same time resulting in more effective cleaning - obvious when you thinkg about it but more patents are - AFTER the event.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
