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EU product energy labelling

Energy labelling of appliances in the European Union has been fully established in the 1990s for various types of household appliances. Throughout the years, the legal system has been updated several times (adding new appliance types, or, for example, adding new energy classes A+ and A++ for the refrigerating appliances).


A detailed change of legislation undertaken in 2010 resulted in a new graphic design and  content of the energy label for three appliance types, and an energy label for televisions as a new product category.

Under the revised Labelling Directive (RL 2010/30/EU) and in combination with Implementing Measures for the Ecodesign Directive (RL 2005/32/EC, replaced by 2009/125/EC), a revision and dynamisation of existing labels and an extension to further product groups has taken place. Main changes were:

  • Labelling is closely aligned to ecodesign measures; measuring methods and evaluation criteria are harmonized
  • Implementing measures now take the form of direct EU regulations, they do not have to be transposed into national law any more.
  • Classification criteria for products, which were partly very outdated, are adapted to technological progress. A dynamization is envisioned: Often future tightening of the criteria is already laid down in the implementing measures.
  • Label design has been revised. A language neutral version with icons was introduced. In several product groups, additional classes ranging from A+ to A+++ have been introduced, while lower classes remain often empty.
  • Labelling is being extended to more and more product groups (so far introduced for  televisions. Boilers and water heaters, and vacuum cleaners are expected to follow.) A legal basis has been provided for extending the labelling to “energy relevant” products such as windows or wall insulation.

The European Commission plans to review the current system in 2014 in order to decide about further adaptations of the legislation related to energy labelling.

Please, see the following document to learn in more detail the about the appliance labelling legislation

EU product energy labelling
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EU Labelling and Ecodesign Legislation
CoL consortium 

Overview of the EU legislation related to the labelling and ecodesign of household appliances

Available in: English (main document), Czech, Croatian, German, Polish, Latvian, Italian, French, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese.

Labelling and ecodesign legislation - Air-Conditioning units
AEA 

Overview of the new energy labelling and ecodesign legislation related to the Air-Conditioning units, entering force around the EU in 2013.

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March 2012