Up to 85 per cent of chillers currently on the market will be obselete under new Ecodesign regulations being finalised by the European Union next month.
Bitzer's chief technology officer, Rainer Grosse-Kracht, told CCN that 85 per cent of chillers being sold today do no meet the efficiency requirements set out under the current draft regulations. Once finalised these draft regulations will officially come into force in July, 2016.
Officially known as Ecodesign Regulation No. 2015/1095, the laws cover chillers and condensing units. Phase two of the energy efficiency regulations, which are even more strict, begin in July, 2018.
Grosse-Kracht said the regulations present major challenges for the entire sector as market research shows that a large number of products on offer today do not meet the criteria.
“A year from now they may no longer be on the market,” he said.
“Bitzer is well prepared as our products already comply with the regulations which provides customers with plenty of certainty for long term projects.”
The Ecodesign Directive has been introduced with consistent EU-wide rules to improve the environmental performance of energy related products. The final vote on the draft regulations is expected to take place during September, 2015.
Products covered by the proposed Regulation were analysed in four preparatory studies:
Refrigeration and freezing equipment (high temperature process chillers);
Air-conditioning and ventilation systems (comfort chillers and air conditioners);
Room heating products (decentralised warm air heaters);
Central heating products that use hot air to distribute heat (heat pumps and centralised warm air heaters) .
The EU goal is to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent by the year 2020. There are a number of factors driving the regulations, according to an EU Impact Assessment report released earlier this year.
“The market for both condensing units and chillers is driven primarily by purchase price, with little attention given to the significant savings that can be made by purchasing energy efficient products,” the report said.
“Even large companies that operate in sectors in which energy costs are a high share of total costs, still focus on price alone.
“The objective is to correct these market failures by facilitating the removal of the worst performing products from the market.
“This includes helping buyers adopt improved technology solutions and providing incentives for manufacturers to further develop and market energy efficient and climate-friendly technology and products.”
The report identified a number of factors that force buyers to focus exclusively on price. It said that in the case of condensing units, it is often an installer, rather than the final user, who makes the purchase.
In an extremely competitive marketplace the installer tends to keep costs to a minimum by including the cheapest products.
“Also it would require a great deal of time and effort on the part of users to acquire the information necessary to compare the energy performance of different products.” To address this problem the EU plans to develop an appropriate system of measurement and classification for energy performance that reflects real life usage.
A number of options are canvassed in the report including labelling.
“Minimum requirements would improve the average energy performance of products by pushing the worst performing ones out of the market, while labels would encourage manufacturers to improve all products including those which are already efficient, by creating an increased demand for energy efficiency from better informed buyers,” the report said.