TABLE OF CONTENTS

Ecodesign, including commercial & professional refrigeration,
boilers and water heaters and tertiary air conditioning.
Overall there is a big potential for advantageous
requirements for naturals refrigerants in Ecodesign regulations
currently being devised or when regulations are
reviewed (typically within 5 years after entry into force).
EU Ecolabel
The EU Ecolabel is a voluntary scheme, established in
1992 (and revised in 2009) to encourage businesses to
market products and services that are kinder to the environment.
Products and services awarded the Ecolabel
carry the flower logo, allowing consumers - including
public and private purchasers - to identify them easily,
while producers find that it gives them a competitive advantage.
Today, the EU Ecolabel covers a wide range of products
and services, with further groups being continuously
added. The environmental criteria behind the EU Ecolabel
are agreed at European level based on life-cycle
analysis and the label itself is only awarded after verification
that the product meets these environmental and
performance standards.
HVAC&R related product groups for which award criteria
have been established include heat pumps, including
both electric and gas heat-pumps with a maximum
heating capacity of 100 kW, but not heat pumps that can
only provide domestic hot water for sanitary use: current
criteria for awarding the heat pump ecolabel are valid
until 31 December 2011. With regards to the refrigerant
used, the decision requires that its global warming potential
(GWP) must not exceed GWP value > 2,000 over a
100 year period. If the refrigerant has a GWP of less than
150 then the minimum requirements of the coefficient
of performance (COP) and primary energy ratio (PER) in
heating mode and the energy efficiency ratio (EER) in
cooling mode shall be reduced by 15%.
Other HVAC&R product groups for which EU Ecolabel
award criteria are currently under development/revision
include an EU Ecolabel for:
• Buildings: A pilot study on developing EU Ecolabel
and Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for
“Buildings” is being carried out. This could be an EU
wide equivalent to the UK BREEAM scheme, which
sets refrigerant requirements.
• Hydronic central heating generators (up to 400 kW):
EU Ecolabel and Green Public Procurement (GPP)
criteria (efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, refrigerant
etc) for hydronic central heating generators
(including heat pumps) are being developed. There
will be one label for all different types of generators,
with oil generators having a disadvantage
(high emissions) and heat pumps on the other hand
having an advantage in meeting the award requirements.
GWP refrigerant requirements could in
theory be included, though in practice it seems not
likely and will depend on stakeholder input received.
• Refrigerators: with hydrocarbons being the standard
there is a discussion to lower GWP limit below the
previous value of 15.
In the future (2011-2015) the development of EU Ecolabels
for the following HVAC&R related product groups
are considered as priorities:
• Heating system (room)
• Water heating system
• Air conditioning
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