One of the pillars of the energy strategy for Europe is to increase energy efficiency in products.

The European Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Directives have been recognised among the most successful tools to promote product efficiency.

These Directives are complemented by product-specific implementing measures. Information on the relevant legislation can be found in this section.

The Ecodesign Directive is a framework that obliges manufacturers of energy-related products to reduce the environmental impact of products, including their energy consumption, throughout their entire life cycle. Ecodesign enables the progressive phase out of the appliances with the worst environmental performances.

The Ecodesign Directive is complemented by the Energy Labelling Directive, which is a tool used to promote the most energy efficient appliances that are available on the market to consumers . The label not only contains energy related information, it also provides information on other performance parameters.

A strong asset of these two frameworks is that the thresholds are set by taking into consideration the functionality and performances of the appliances. In this context, energy efficiency is considered as the consumption used in order to provide a specific functionality. This approach provides a balanced way to rank appliances.

Most domestic appliances are covered by ecodesign and energy label requirements. Due to the limited saving potential, for some products, no measure has been adopted by the European legislator.

In order to increase the performance of some specific categories of products, CECED has in some cases worked on voluntary agreements, hereafter called “Codes of Conduct” on certain parameters.

CECED has developed two Codes of Conduct, one on the performance of irons, and one on the noise produced by range hoods. 

For specific information regarding legislative documents related to a specific product please refer to the appliance section.

For more information on the Ecodesign Directive, click here.

For more information on the Energy Label Directive, click here.

For further information please contact Matteo Rambaldi or Félix Mailleux.