The EU legislation on Ecodesign and Energy Labelling aims at improving the energy efficiency of products available in the EU market. It helps orientating the choices of consumers by providing information on the efficiency of products, and it eliminates the least performing products from the market, contributing to the EU’s 2030 energy efficiency target.
Ecodesign Directive
The Ecodesign Directive provides consistent EU-wide rules for improving the environmental performance of products, such as household appliances, information and communication technologies, or engineering. The Directive sets out minimum mandatory requirements for the energy efficiency of these products.
Energy Labelling Directive
The Energy Labelling Directive complements the requirements of the Ecodesign Directive with obligations regarding consumer information. These comprise using energy labels to indicate the efficiency of the product or package, besides providing additional relevant information to the market and consumers.
Opportunities for Solar Heat
The labelling and eco-design obligations for heaters and water heaters (LOT1 and LOT2) came into force on 26 September 2015. The regulations on LOT1 1 and LOT2, and in particular the package label, with its provision highlighting certain systems including solar thermal, represent a unique opportunity for the solar heat industry.
Solar thermal systems can be considered per, in a product label, when combined with other sources or when applied in a system, reflecting positively on the energy performance of the system on the package label. The requirements and, in particular, the package label imply
new responsibilities for the entire solar thermal value chain: manufacturers, distributors, resellers, installers, certification bodies and test labs.
Information for manufacturers
It is mandatory for manufacturers in Europe whose products fall under energy labelling (i.e.,
solar thermal collectors) to register in the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL).
Our guidance for solar thermal manufacturers can be accessed by our members.
Solar Heat Europe’s main priorities
- Support the good roll-out of the package label in market
- Strive for improving the legislative framework
Solar Heat Europe will continue leading the industry through this process, aggregating efforts and promoting partnerships essential for the good roll-out of the package label in the market. The LabelPackA+ project provides a good framework for this endeavour.
Empowering Consumers
In addition to providing information to consumers on new products, energy labelling policies could also be applied to existing heating systems. This is currently underway in some Member States, thus gathering information on the (in)efficiency of individual old boilers in households and fostering consumers’ awareness and planned switch to renewable heating options. This is an important factor to promote a planned replacement of old systems. Most of the replacements are deemed to be urgent, due to a break-down or malfunction of the
current system, limiting the range of options for new systems. When renovations are planned in advance, renewable heating technologies such as solar thermal can be integrated into the new systems more easily. Promoting the labelling of existing heating systems would
therefore encourage citizens to shift to more efficient and renewable appliances.