( CNN ) -- The EU police are not about to take your vacuum cleaner away from you . So , stop worrying . But Monday marks the day that super powerful vacuum cleaners that use more than 1600 Watts can no longer be sold in stores in the EU , nor manufactured in EU plants . This should be of no shock to anyone . The rule - intended to improve energy efficiency - was agreed five years ago and manufacturers have reacted accordingly . They may not like it . Dyson for one is looking for a judicial review of the new rule , though it has complied with it . European consumers are used to this . New Wattage rules have already been in effect for light bulbs , televisions , washing machines and refrigerators . But for some reason here in the UK , the vacuum cleaner appears a step too far for the popular press which has noted that the EU is `` sucking '' consumer rights out of Britain , or just that the `` EU Sucks . '' There are reports of a jump in sales of the more powerful vacuum cleaners over the weekend before the ban took effect . `` I believe there is a misconception and that is that if you have a high-voltage vac that also means that it has a lot of power to suck the dust , '' the EU spokesperson Marlene Holzner told me last week , dismissing endless columns of ink in Britain that we will have to vacuum for longer periods , hence use more electricity , to clean our homes . Vacuum cleaners will also have those little A-G charts on them so we know how much they cost us to run . There are also new rules on performance and noise levels . Outdoor vacs , wet and dry vacs and industrial vacs are exempt from all the new rules . But that did not make much news in Britain . Not that the EU is stopping there . The Wattage for vacuums will be lowered to a maximum of 900 Watts in 2017 . The current limit of 1600 Watts is just a temporary pause on the way to even more energy efficiency . Next year the EU will start to talk about putting other appliances on the list ; lawn mowers , mobile phones , hair dryers , kettles ( watch out for the British headlines on that one -- EU Blows its Stack , EU Boils Over ) . Brussels stresses there is no formal , or informal list and there is no guarantee new rules to lower the Wattage on smaller appliances will be adopted . But the goal here is greater energy efficiency . The EU hopes to meet about a third of its power reduction targets in the coming years simply by reducing energy used by appliances . It is finding steps to cut unnecessary power and it sees this as a less painful step on the way to that goal .
Vacuum cleaners that use more than 1600 Watts can no longer be sold in stores in the EU . The European Union rule is intended to improve energy efficiency . Comment: