Which?: Are Energy Saving Products Safe?

ECO Plugs

If you create demand, then the market reacts to it. As consumers look to switch out their expensive, energy hungry devices - there's some nasty surprises been discovered by the team at Which?.

Illegal, dangerous and scam. Three words you definitely don't want to hear when your trying your level best to improve the energy efficiency of your home.

Struggling consumers who turn to online retailers like Amazon, AliExpress, eBay, Shein, Temu and TikTok Shop might want to look at this research - which found products that were labelled as ECO, but might in fact be deadly.

Plugs which are being sold claimed to have the ability to 'stabilise voltage' (do we have wobbly electricity in the UK?) or 'balance' electric current.

Turns out that high lead content in the solders, and poor quality construction mean you could be more likely to be balancing a fire extinguisher at them rather than feeling smug about saving money.

Even though the researchers at Which? contacted retailers about the potential harmful products, many products were only briefly removed, before appearing again just weeks later.

Sue Davies, Which? Head of Consumer Protection Policy, told us: 

“It’s incredibly concerning to see that these scam eco-plugs are still widely available on many online marketplaces, despite the fact that they are illegal and potentially a danger to their users. 

The Which? investigations have also shown that removing specific listings for recalled products is not sufficient to keep consumers safe. The consumer champion’s product safety tests found similar or identical-looking products can also be unsafe, leading to warnings for customers to avoid unbranded electronics sold on online marketplaces. Su Davies said:

“Sadly, it’s not surprising that these dangerous items have reappeared on major online marketplaces. It fits the pattern we’ve seen following countless Which? investigations and is yet more evidence of why change is needed."

ECO Bulbs

The Which? findings parallel a phenomenon we noticed at our magazine with ECO bulbs, the ones that are some of the quickest and easier fixes for home owners. Whilst not unsafe, many bulbs marketed as ECO have not got their energy saving rating labelled on the products, and we found products on sale in larger retailers that called themselves energy saving but were in fact just 'better than C' which is not an ECO bulb.

ECO Scams

The most difficult aspect of the Which? report is the range of scam campaigns they found on the various social media platforms, with ago old tactics of smuggling the image of Elon Musk (!?) onto an ad to give it the air of authenticity. But as the team at Which? told us;

"Which? investigations have also shown that removing specific listings for recalled products is not sufficient to keep consumers safe. The consumer champion’s product safety tests have found similar or identical-looking products can also be unsafe, leading to warnings for customers to avoid unbranded electronics sold on online marketplaces."

As always, the team at Which? provided the opportunity for a right to reply, and the full list of responses can be summarised - "yeah we know, we remove them, they come back".

Enforcement

With customers and the safety of households at stake, these devices, which represent the very basic of energy saving measures do need regulation, better regulation. We'll leave the last word to Which?;

"The government’s Product Regulation and Metrology Bill must be strengthened to ensure that these new laws give online marketplaces clear legal responsibilities for keeping dangerous products off their sites, backed up by tough enforcement, including heavy fines, when businesses fall short."

Read the full article on Which? today.