Energy Ratings Updated

I'm sure that most people are now familiar with the colour coded energy rating labels present on many electrical items and how that relates to the energy efficiency of the item.

Well not anymore, that labelling has now changed and may no longer mean what it used to. It still relates to energy efficiency of the item (in our case mainly lamps and lighting) but the grading has been rescaled and I hope to give you some insight into why this has happened and what it now means. This is by no means an extensive explanation just an overview to hopefully help ease the transition.

With the increases in energy costs it is now more important than ever that we understand energy ratings to help maximise efficiency and in turn reduce costs.

Firstly let's look at why this has happened.

The reason for the change is a positive one, over recent years the efficiency of many items has improved greatly meaning that far more modern items were occupying the A++ - B range than ever before making differentiating between the efficiency of these products tricky and therefore rendering the system somewhat useless.

So what now?

Well, they have done away with the A+ (and above) ratings and it is now a uniform A-G. 

Currently nothing achieves an A rating and this gives us some insight into how the changes have been made. The A rating has been left empty as a target for future developments. It takes into account the speed of advances in technology and allows room for new products that will inevitably outperform their current counterparts in efficiency to occupy the top spot on the scale. The differences between the items occupying C and D positions will now often be closer than between the grades on the previous scale.

The problem we have now is that lamps that used to achieve the top ratings on the scale an A+ or higher now find themselves seemingly plummeting down the chart and ending up as an F or G rating.

When looking at these new categories and ratings it is important to take the following points into account.

• Currently nothing is A rated.
• Old halogen and incandescent lamps would no longer even be considered efficient enough to earn a place on this new scale. Even some of the lesser LED's would struggle.
• The new scale allows for smaller differences to have an impact on a products rating so items that now rate at around E & F are actually still quite efficient and consume relatively low amounts of energy.
• Along with the new ratings the label now has its energy consumption listed and a QR code that enables you to find more information on the lamp and its compliance with the energy ratings.

If you require any more information please get in touch and we will help where we can. You can also find more information on wattage and colour temperature (Kelvin rating) on our website helping you to find more information to select the correct lamps for your requirements.