On 24 February the draft final reports of the study on Ecodesign, commissioned by the European Commission, have been presented. EBC is satisfied with the exclusion of the application of eco-design requirements to windows. However, for several reasons construction SMEs are sceptical about the use of energy labelling for window products, which was recommended by the study.
Energy labelling does not take into consideration the whole building, so it is not effective to evaluate what the final energy savings would be. The EU has already put in place the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to tackle this issue, so duplicative requirements must be avoided.
Moreover, assigning rating criteria to energy labelling could be a complex task and it could have misleading results. Most home owners might want to buy an “A” window, even though it might not be the most appropriate one for their building.
In their draft final reports, the consultants also suggested a division of Europe into geographic zones for the assignment of the labelling to windows, which could make selling these products in the Internal Market very difficult.
Representing construction SMEs & craftsmen in Europe