New Energy Efficiency Labels 2021 - What has changed?

Thanks to new technology and innovations in the past few years, kitchen appliances have become more and more efficient than what they have been previously. And with the demand for more environmentally friendly products, the previous energy ratings scale became out of date and hard to understand.

So in March 2021, the energy rating labels changed to make them much easier to understand and have more information on them than previously.

The most prominent changes are how the information is laid out on the label:

• A new scale from A to G

• Clearer icons showing specifics of an appliance such as capacity, wash loads, place settings

• New icons added for more information

• The energy consumption is more prominent

• A QR code on the label so you can simply scan the code to find out more about the appliance.

 

 

The main products you’ll see the new labels on at Enterprise 2000 are:

• Fridges, Freezers and Fridge Freezers

• Washing Machines

• Washer-Dryers

• Dishwashers

Over the next few years, you’ll start to see other appliances like tumble dryers and vacuum cleaners have these new labels as well.

Some of our appliances may have both the old and new labels – this was required to cover the period in which the new labels were starting to be introduced so that you had all the information you needed.

 

 

Breaking down the energy label details:

All labels now have a A to G scale so there's no confusion between A+++, A++ or A+. But they also have a QR code at the top right and a flag for whether it's a UK label or an EU label. 

In order to get manufacturers to make more efficient machines, they changed the margins for each group. For example, if you had a A++ rated fridge from before 2021, it would now be classed as an F on the new label. Here’s a small graph to show roughly how they compare (this is not 100% accurate)

Fridges/Freezers/Fridge Freezers:

All types of refrigeration will have very similar labels - but the icons at the bottom will change depending on the type of refrigeration appliance. 

Along the middle of the label, it will show how much energy the appliance will use up over the year (annum). Then underneath, they will show 3 icons: freezer capacity (snowflake), cool/fridge capacity (milk carton) and then the noise levels (speaker). 

Here's a comparison of the old and the new labels:

Washing Machines:

The washing machine label is one of the labels that changed the most. These labels now show how much energy is used per 100 cycles, rather than the annual usage the refridgeration labels have. 

The icons at the bottom can sometimes fill the space with all the details you need for washing machines: Wash capacity (laundry basket), duration of the/any Eco programmes (clock), the water consumption (tap), spin efficiency class (t-shirt), and the noise levels for the spin cycles (speaker). 

Here's a comparison of the old and the new labels:

 

Washer Dryers:

The labels for washer dryers look like they have two labels in one - since a washer dryer is both a washing machine and a tumble dryer in one appliance. The scale on the left shows the energy efficiency class for the wash & dry cycles and the scale on the right is for the wash only cycles. The two scales may differ depending on what the consumption levels for each program - so you may find some labels have two different letter classes (e.g D for wash & dry, C for wash only)

It is the same for the bottom half of the label, where the left shows the wash and dry cycle details and the right shows the wash only cycle details. Otherwise, it follows the same format as the washing machines - energy consumption per 100 cycles, wash capacity (laundry basket), water consumption (tap), and the duration of the eco program (clock). Then at the very bottom, it has the details for the spin efficiency class (t-shirt) and the noise level for the spin (speaker). 

 

Dishwashers:

Like the washing machines and washer dryers, the new dishwasher labels now show the energy consumption per 100 cycles - however, this is using the eco program on dishwashers. 

For th icons, they show the number of place settings (the plates), thw water consumption on the eco program(s) (tap), the duration of the eco program(s) (clock), and the noise level (speaker).

Here's a comparison of the old and the new labels: