(Finance) – Not all electrical products on the market comply with European regulations on labeling and ecodesign: this is what emerges from the results of the European project EEPLIANT3, in which various market surveillance authorities and organizations participated, including ENEA. The project – explains the note – aims to increase awareness among producers on the importance of eco-friendly design to guarantee safety and energy efficiency of products, containing bill costs and CO2 emissions, but also to protect consumers and strengthen trust in EU policies on energy efficiency.
It also emerges from the project results the need for a timely response by the legislator and national authorities to implement more effective market surveillance mechanisms, ensuring wider dissemination of the Energy Labeling Framework Regulation (2017/1369), the Ecodesign Directive (2009/125) and the implementing regulations of product, without interpretative ambiguities.
Within the project the level of energy efficiency and performance of six product categories were verified: air conditioners and fans; dryers; water heaters and tanks for the accumulation of hot water; ventilation units; light sources; heating appliances. The inspections carried out highlighted numerous non-conformities, already found in previous editions of the EEPLIANT project, in particular relating to energy performance and labelling, product sheet and other useful documentation. As a result, supervisory authorities intervened with various measures, ranging from warnings to sales bans.
“The number of products covered by eco-design and energy labeling requirements has doubled in recent years, so much so that it was decided, compared to previous editions of the project, to broaden the range of appliances to be monitored to ensure their compliance with European legislation” , observes the researcher Milena Presutto of the ENEA Energy Efficiency Department. “It is worth specifying, however, that the percentage of non-compliance detected by the EEPLIANT3 action does not reflect the overall situation of the European market of the products involved: in fact the market surveillance authorities – continues Presutto – intentionally concentrated on the selection of the models suspected of having a higher probability of non-compliance. Despite this, the results clearly indicate the need to improve knowledge on ecodesign and energy labeling requirements, increasing cooperation between economic operators and market surveillance authorities.”