Hi Trilobite,
That's what I meant. Ability to clean well is a more a design issue than one regarding motor power. A 500 watt vacuum that can channel air flow well can serve as well as one employing a thousand watts any day. I know that because I have a Lux 1205 that just amazes me with its ability to do real work.
Nonetheless, I still maintain that vacuuming whether with a high or lesser-powered machine doesn't make that much of a dent in an electric bill. They are not usually used for all that long a time and, God knows, not usually used that often in many homes.
On the other hand our wonderful frost-free refrigerators burn up a lot of juice. It is claimed that their power consumption has been lessened but at one point in time my local power supplier, Con Edison, claimed they cost about a dollar a day to run. Now we're talking money -- $356.00 a year. It's doubtful that you'll come near that at year end because of your vacuum. The biggest drop in power consumption in my home has been due to switching to compact flourescent bulbs.
People are being played with. I am not saying that real conservation issues do not exist but this is much the same as all scare tactics used to send us scrambling about to hoping to buy a sense of safety. Safety, in the bigger sense of the word, cannot be bought but simply being practical can move us closer to it.
Venson
