A novel and new way to use a label is to be introduced by The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and John Lewis, who will introduce a product-labeling trial next year that shows the lifetime running costs of household appliances, so simple you wonder why this label has not been in use before now. Earlier trials in Norway have shown that when consumers see the running costs as well as the initial cost of a product they are more likely to buy energy efficient models and now John Lewis is to begin using a label on goods such as washing machines, washer dryers and tumble dryers.
With the cost of energy increasing each year this sort of label is sure to help keep usage down to a necessary minimum without waste and although we do have labels which rate appliances from A to F showing how energy efficient a product is, these are reported in kWh per year, rather than in estimated monetary terms for the life of the product. So this is another way in which labeling products can give necessary information and save the consumer money over the lifetime of the product.