European environment:

European standardization and  CPR (Construction Products regulation)

As previously reported the European Commission decided in 2022, further to the ‘James Elliot Case’ and several public surveys, to implement fundamental changes to some regulations and mainly to the Construction Products Regulation (CPR).

This process will take several years. The detail of the changes to be made and the timeframe for the publication of the ‘New CPR’ are unclear at that moment.

Until a few months ago the process of citation of Harmonized standards in the OJEU was completely blocked (no new citation in more than 3 years). It became clear for everybody that the status quo could not continue for an unknown number of years and several ways out of this situation were discussed between the EC and CEN. 

In the second half of 2022, the EC opened the door to:

- the citation according to currently valid mandates, provided that the requirements contained in the standard(s) do not deviate from the original answer (late 2022 one standard was already cited according to this procedure)

- the speeding up of the development of ‘Standardization Requests’ (new name for the ‘Mandate’) for some TCs

Further to a contact with the EC established by ECA, the EC offered TC166 to actively work on Standardization Request to replace the Mandate M105 with the support of CEN. The first meeting of the AdHoc Group set up to work on the subject took place in December 2022. Work is actively in progress and this process is expected to last around 2 years.

In the meanwhile, the work for drafting / revising Harmonized Standards is on hold; the work on non-harmonized standards can continue

  

Events related to that topic:

-June 2023   WEB-Conference concerning Standardization Request and 

Fast Track Process organized by EC and CEN. 

https://www.cencenelec.eu/news-and-events/events/2023/2023-06-29-webinar-cpr/
                                                                                                                                 

News from other industries:

CEN/TC 57 "Central heating boilers" has published a standard for "Heating boilers — Heating boilers for solid fuels, manually and automatically stoked, nominal heat output of up to 500 kW" where requirements for condensing solid fuel boilers are implemented. They are working now for a possible amendment of this standard to introduce noise emissions considering the revision of the test standard therefore.

CEN/TC 109/WG 1 "Domestic central heating boilers using gaseous fuels" is working on the harmonization of their standards including a new fuel H2 and mixtures of natural gas with H2.

CEN/TC 127 "Fire safety" in buildings is working on the implementation of the topic "fire spreading for chimneys" in their classification standard. This classification standard has been published in summer 2023.

CEN/TC 238 "Test gases, test pressures, appliance categories and gas appliance types" is working on the implementation of test gases for H2 and mixtures of natural gas with H2 als well as on the implementation of eDME as a substitude for liquid gases.

CEN/TC 295 "Residential solid fuel burning appliances": the Standardization Request M/577 was implemented by the EC for this TC mid of 2021 and TC295 expect their first standards according to this SReq to be cited in the OJEU at the end of 2023. 

CEN/SFG-U "SECTOR FORUM GAS UTILISATION"  is working with high pressure on the implementation of hydrogen for the use as gaseous fuel in domestic central heating boilers.

Eco Design LOT 1 “Energy labelling of space heaters, combination heaters, packages of space heater, temperature control and solar device and packages of combination heater, temperature control and solar device“ 

and LOT 2 “Energy labelling of water heaters, hot water storage tanks and packages of water heater and solar device”  

Ecodesign main features 

• An updated tier of ecodesign space heating requirements is proposed for 1 year after entry into force of the regulation2, introducing the new primary energy factor 1,9 Conversion Coefficient (CC) for electricity generation and distribution, introducing new space heating categories like thermally driven heat pumps LT and hybrid heaters, the latter not only including hybrid heat pump but also solar hybrid (solar thermal with gas back-up); 

• A 2nd tier of ecodesign requirements proposed by 1 Sept. 2029, setting space heating seasonal efficiency at least at 115% and thus phasing out stand-alone sales of fuel and electric resistance boilers; 

• Up-to-date technology-specific requirements for combination- and dedicated water heating in six and eight categories respectively, instead of the current technology-neutral approach, thus allowing a more effective and tailor-made approach; 

• Extension of the ED space heater scope from 400 kW to 1 MW for more reduction of NOx emissions (differentiated by gas type) and more energy savings (up to 15%), filling in the gap between the scope of Ecodesign and the scope of the Medium Combustion Plant Directive. The EL space heater scope remains capacities ≤ 70 kW; 

• ED scope for dedicated water heaters includes instantaneous types ≤400 kW and storage types ≤2000 L. The EL scope for instantaneous types is capacities ≤ 70 kW; 

• Third party conformity assessment (TPCA) for the space heating efficiency of heat pumps and hybrid heaters to instil best confidence in test results, inter alia promoting and facilitating the single market principle and avoiding additional test requirements from individual Member States; 

• Transitional methods and standards references now integrated in the regulations (ED Annex IV and EL Annex IX), creating a more robust legal framework; 

• Latest state-of-the-art in definitions, test- and calculation methods for existing and new product groups (hybrids and new heat recovery devices) building on close to 40 EN test standards, many of which have been released in the recent years by the European standardisation organisations, including a standard that finally enables full testing of the Passive Flue Heat Recovery Devices (PFHRD) for water heating; 

• A proposed temperature/flow dependency factor (Fctrl) corrects the dedicated water heater energy efficiency to account for the capability of the water heater to maintain a set water temperature independent of the water volume flow rate; 

• Control Verification Procedure (CVP) method introduced to have closer to real-life results. Review of the ‘compensation-method’, further improving testing of heat pumps closer to real-life, is planned and candidate for early implementation; 

• The NOx emission limits of the current Ecodesign regulations for space (combination) heaters and dedicated water heaters are maintained as today, but now applicable only for G20 or G25 gases, whereas for 3rd family gases factors 1,3 (G30) and 1,2 (G31) of he G20/G25 values apply; 

• The maximum sound power level requirements indoors and outdoors for heat pump and hybrid heaters as well as heat pump water heaters stays nominally the same as today and as proposed in 2021, but a new, more stringent agreement on the measurement and calculation method is proposed; 

• The proposed requirements for material resource efficiency have been made more specific, e.g. as regards a list of spare parts and their availability (till 10 years after placing the last unit of a model on the market). Parts shall be sent within 10 working days after having received the order. Access to repair and maintenance information shall be granted to professional repairers under certain conditions related to safety issues of the heaters; 

• Proposed requirements on product information are tightened and more extensive to allow more effective and efficient market surveillance; 

• There are requirements for self-monitoring of the heater efficiency with amongst others specific tolerance levels for energy input and heat output of the appliance as a basis for a standardisation request; 

• Comprehensive manufacturer instructions that allow to duplicate heat pump efficiency tests by market surveillance for compliance verification will have to be available within a strict time limit after request; 

• The possible use of green gaseous or liquid fuels in the long term for the products in scope will depend on the development of safety standards under the Gas Appliance Regulation (GAR) and specific requirements are not included in the ED & EL proposals; 

• Most test- and calculation methods are reworked, following latest standards. Compared to the current regulation the approach of the package label is new, as is the way the solar assistance is calculated and that information is presented in look-up tables; 

• For dedicated water heaters the functional requirements for maximum storage volume of storage water heaters with declared load profiles [3XS], [XXS or XS] and [S] stay the same at respectively 7, 15 and 36 litres. The same goes for minimum amount of maximum mixed water volume at 40°C for load profiles M through 4XL. There are new rules proposed for electric heat pump water heaters ≤140 litres that are tested using 'indoor air'; 

• The regulations for dedicated water heaters also include hot water tanks ≤2000 L. The maximum ecodesign standing losses S in Watts for multivalent tanks with a volume V > 80 L is 12 + 6.43*V. For all other hot water storage tanks maximum S is 12 + 5,93*V. This is more stringent than the current maximum S at 16,66 + 8,33 · V Watts; 

• Calculation of equivalent volume (Veq) of a storage tank with Phase Change Material (PCM) is added. 

https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/expert-groups-register/screen/expert-groups/consult?lang=en&groupId=3609&fromMeetings=true&meetingId=47618