Tips for buying home appliances
UKMA offers you a number of straightforward tips to help you get a fair deal with
domestic appliance purchases.
Plan in metric
If you are thinking of buying either built-in or standalone kitchen appliances,
it is important to measure and plan your kitchen space in metric. All kitchen units
and most standalone appliances are built to standard metric depths and widths.
Taking measurements in feet and inches will require plenty of calculator work and
can easily lead to mistakes such as kitchen units or appliances which do not fit.
You will almost certainly find that your appliance retailer will display appliances
by their metric sizes.
If you are looking at a washing machine get to know how much your typical washing
load weighs in kilograms. This will help you to know if the washing machine capacity
is adequate.
If you are looking at heaters or air conditioning units get the power ratings in
kilowatts. This will help compare products and estimate your energy supply costs.
Use the energy label to compare products
The energy label is your best friend in terms of getting reliable data on the performance
of a home appliance. Since the data is gathered in a standard way you can use it
reliably to compare similar products.
More information is provided on-line at these locations
UKMA recommends that you use the Energy Label to check key parameters such as capacity,
performance and energy consumption of appliances. The standard display format means
that it is easy to compare one product with another. If the energy label is not
displayed, ask your retailer to show it to you.
What is the energy label?
The energy label is compulsory for retailers and manufacturers of home appliances.
An example of the energy label for a washing machine is given below.
The energy label consists of a number of standard parts:
- At the top the type of appliance (washing machine, electric oven, etc) is indicated
along with the manufacturer and model.
- A coloured scale of energy efficiency is then marked with the green A representing
the best energy efficiency and G the worst.
- Actual energy consumption is marked in a way that allows comparison with other appliances
and calculate the energy costs using your gas or electricity bills.
- Performance figures will vary from appliance to appliance. Thus a washing machine
will focus on washing and spin performance, while an electric oven will show performance
in conventional and fan modes.
- A capacity figure will be in kilograms for a washing machine and in litres for an
oven, fridge or freezer.
- Finally a standard noise rating is given.
Ask for heater or air condition ratings in kilowatts
When power ratings are given in BTUs it is hard for you to assess the output and
energy costs of an appliance. Working in kW should enable you to make comparisons
between similar products and allow you to compare the ratings of electric and gas
appliances. Last but not least you can easily calculate the energy running costs
based on kilowatt-hour prices from your electricity or gas supplier.
© Copyright 2008 UK metric association (
Full statement)
UKMA is not responsible for external sites