ErP Update: Avoid The Fine - Everything You Need To Know

The European Union has announced updates to its Energy Related Products, or ErP, Directive set to launch in September 2015. From 26th September, all residential and commercial heating products must carry labels indicating the energy efficiency rating of the product and meet the new minimum energy performance criteria established under the new regulations.

In 2013, the European Union announced changes to its ERP Directive. The energy performance calculation for air conditioning systems and heat pumps changed from COP to SCOP and EER to SEER. As a result, the building services industry gained from a better understanding of the real efficiency of heating and cooling systems and less efficient technology became prohibited.

Now, the heating and cooling industry is preparing for the next set of updates. The aim is to provide consumers with more information about the products they are buying and helping to drive down energy consumption across the European Union. Starting September 2015, room heaters including boilers, CHP units and heat pumps, multi-heaters and composite systems will need to meet minimum energy performance criteria and will require an energy label showing their energy efficiency class and level of energy consumption.

The new regulations will affect the majority of heating products, except for biomass boilers which are exempt until the next update. System boilers, combi boilers, DHW cylinders and heat generators up to 70 kW are all included in the labelling update.

Under the new directive, anyone selling or manufacturing heating appliances will be held responsible for ensuring the products are compliant and labelled under the ErP regulations. However, it is up to the installer to ensure that the efficiency of entire heating systems is calculated and labelled correctly, and fall within the energy performance criteria. Failure to comply with the regulations is punishable by a fine.

To support its customers, Panasonic has developed the Energy Label Generator, an easy-to-use online tool to help installers comply with these new regulations. This new ErP Tool enables users to print out the relevant labels and supporting data-sheets for Panasonic equipment.

The energy efficiency categories depicted on the label fall between A++ to G for hot water cylinders and A++ to G for heat pumps. These categories are based on the seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) which depends firstly on what climactic region of Europe the appliance is being used in and secondly on the type of heating system that is being used.

With these new updates to the ERP regulations, energy consumption will be brought to the forefront of consumers’ attention whereby they will be able to make a more informed choice when buying heating appliances, encouraging the promotion of energy efficient products leading to a reduction in energy demand.

To find out more or to use Panasonic’s ErP Label Generator, please visit www.panasonicproclub.com.