Of course, if brands actually stopped putting silly little "go faster" watt numerical decals on their actual products, the EU could just give the brands concerned a rest. But as Benny did point out earlier, we have always been conditioned to obtain a higher power, much faster, quicker kind of a lifestyle, promising that life would be easier, or better, massaged through the idea of going premium. I don't think it can be blamed entirely on vacuum cleaners, but more to the point, the automobile trade where the word "Deluxe" has always been offered as a higher purchase upgrade on optional mods and features, to the present day equivalents of dressing up car models with sporty trim but avoiding the expensive engine options.
Benny - Ive done my own tests compared to using a 2.2 kw 1.7 litre directly against a 3.0 kw 1.7 kettle - there really isn't much of a difference in time - with the 2.2kw, it takes about 2.4 minutes and 1.5 minutes with a 3.0kw. I don't mind either wattage, but I'm far more concerned if the kettle in question has a concealed, flat base element where the kettle's interior can be cleaned out compared to a supermarket cheapy, where most models have a bare element - useless if you live in a hard water/limescale area.
End of the day though, yes there is a fair justification for owning a vintage vacuum cleaner where lower watts are concerned, but I don't think most members see their vintage collections for that reason alone. I know I never considered my Hoover Junior U1104 to have eco-saving low wattage, and was more concerned about its lack of suck from the tool kit as opposed to its obviously better, instant contact to the floor from its beater bar roller brush. But therein offers the same point I made in my first paragraph to this post - Hoover offered the tool kit as an optional extra and for some Junior models, standard kit - again as consumers we were offered something that supposedly made the machine better - but in my experience, it really made no sense at all.
