On Mon, 6 Jan 2014 09:14:23 -0000, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

I really think the main
reason most manufacturers went to smpsus was weight in transit from the far
east!

Nope, blame the European Onion and Directive 2009/125/EC "Directive
on the eco-design of Energy-using Products (EuP)". The same directive
that killed the incandescent bulb. The Ecodesign Directive was
transposed into UK law under the Ecodesign for Energy Related Products
Regulations (SI 2010 No 2617).

In particular regulation (EC) No 278/2009 of 6 April 2009
"implementing Directive 2005/32/EC of the European Parliament and of
the Council with regard to ecodesign requirements for no-load
condition electric power consumption and average active
efficiency of external power supplies"

This requires a power supply to draw no more than 0.5W under no load
(reducing to 0.3W in 2015) and be of certain efficiency. Linear power
supplies cannot meet these requirements.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...03:0010:EN:PDF