What are brown goods?
‘Brown Goods‘ are defined as household electrical appliances, such as stereos, DVDs and televisions etc. Brown goods currently aren’t rated in the same way as white goods (kitchen and washing appliances), but energy efficient brown goods are beginning to emerge.
Environmentally, the main issues with brown goods are their life span and their energy efficiency. Many brown goods are cheaply made, with no little or no thought or their efficiency, but the WEEE directive has mentioned this issue.
By buying brown goods that have the Energy Star label you are buying equipment that will work in the same way as your current equipment but they will have a higher efficiency rating. The Energy Star initiative is a US program so only relates to products rated in the USA, UK goods currently have no official energy rating system for brown goods but some manufacturers do voluntarily give an energy rating.
Brown goods include:
- CD and DVD players
- Televisions
- Camcorders
- Still cameras
- Video game consoles
- HiFi stereos and home cinema systems
- Telephones
- Answering machines
Brown goods with a short life span increase the amount of waste going into landfills, so buying better quality brown goods is an excellent way of reducing your impact on the environment. Generally cheap brown goods are a false economy anyway, higher quality products will usually have a longer lifespan so they need replacing less often, saving you money and reducing your impact on the environment.
The Energy Star rating system is a US government initiative which provides a trustworthy label on over 50 product categories and thousands of models for the home and office. These products deliver the same or better performance as comparable models while using less energy and saving money. In the UK there is no formal energy efficiency marking but some manufacturers do have high effciency products, look on the packaging for indicators.
