Eco Factor: Energy-efficient vacuum cleaner made from recycled materials.
Electrolux is out to make the best use of old plastic by developing an energy-efficient vacuum cleaner from it. The Electrolux Ultra Silencer Green is made from 55% recycled plastic, with a newly designed high-efficiency motor that reduces its power consumption by 33%. Since the vacuum cleaner is made from recycled plastic, the only color available is black.
For those of you who want love to see appliances in your favorite color, you’ll have to sacrifice some of its ecofriendly credentials and will be able to buy the same vac in red, but this won’t be made from recycled materials. This new range of vacuum cleaners will be outfitted with an energy-efficient 1250 watt motor that along with a newly designed nozzle, promises top notch cleaning. These silent machines emit just 71 dB, which is 7 dB less than other cleaners available on the market today.
The Dark Side:
We do respect the efforts of Electrolux, but developing a colored vacuum cleaner is no answer to not using recycled plastic.
Via: Appliancist
Comments
It’s great to see more energy efficient appliances coming to the market, especially ones made partly from recycled materials.
But, to put this in perspective, the difference between a 2,000 watt motor and a 1,250 watt motor is only going to provide a major energy savings if you do a lot of vacuuming. Assuming you vacuum once a week, and you do it for one hour, that’s 750 watt hours of savings a week, or 39 kilowatt hours of savings a year. At $0.10 per kwh, you’ll save $3.90 per year, and keep about 120 lbs of CO2 from the atmosphere if your electricity comes from coal. A good contribution, but it looks like these things sell for $299 or thereabouts - that means their payback period at $0.10/kwh is about 7-8 years for 1 hour of use per week, if you replace a working vacuum cleaner.
What could the money you spent on this new vacuum cleaner have bought if spent on other energy efficiency measures, assuming your current, 2,000 watt vacuum cleaner is already performing well? Ask yourself this before you rush out and buy!