The evil, domineering, nanny-state EU wants to BAN powerful vacuum cleaners! Cue shock, horror, xenophobic outrage etc.

From next month, vacuum cleaners with motors that draw more than 1.6 kW will no longer be made or sold.

I was so appalled by this imposition on my liberties that I was driven to go and check the power consumption of my own very effective and rather industrial vacuum cleaner. It takes 600 W, or 1.2 kW on high-power boost mode. It works just fine.

Unless you’re running a dog kennel, I’m not sure this is going to be much of an issue. And if your vacuum draws enough power to heat a room, perhaps it really is indecently inefficient and not very well designed.