The new energy labeling of lighting sources (fundamentally bulbs and lamps) modified by the European Commission to adapt the Energy Efficiency Classification to the new test methods on the consumption of these devices, has entered into force on September 1 in Spain.
On March 1, this new labeling began to be applied to five families of electrical products (refrigerators, freezers and winemakers, washing machines, washing machines, dishwasher and electronic screens) both in physical stores and on sale online.
It is now when the new label also enters into force for lighting sources.
As in March, distributors will have 14 business days to make the change in the products for sale.
As the ministry for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge highlights, “the improvement of energy efficiency is one of the pillars of the transition towards a low emission economy.”
According to data from the synthetic report of Energy Efficiency Indicators in Spain 2020 of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Savings (IDAE), prepared with data from 2018, 11.75% of household electricity consumption is intended for lighting
, so that the Energy Efficiency Decisions of the User in this area suppose an important savings on their bill.
Exterior lighting also has an important weight in electricity consumption.
Currently, until September 30, the Royal Decree who approves the Energy Savings and Efficiency Regulation and reduction of the light contamination of external lighting facilities, a normative instrument that will be “key”, according to
The Ministry, to improve energy efficiency in this area.
The new labeling of electrical products eliminates energy classes A +, A ++ and A +++, returning to a classification scale from A to GA, where the A is assigned to products of lower consumption and greater energy efficiency, and G
To the highest consumption and lower energy efficiency.
In this way, the label will maintain seven different kinds.
New labels will also incorporate an exclusive QR code so that the consumer can access, through their mobile phone, the specific characteristics and data of each model within a new European database called EPREL (European Product Database for Energy
Labeling).
According to the Ministry, the objective of this change is to “promote technological development and expand the range of choice of products to consumers based on their energy efficiency.”
In recent years, categories A + and higher have been saturated with models, and new technological developments have not found a hole to differentiate properly within the established scale of efficiency.
The rescaled of the energy classification will take into account technological innovation in the manufacture of electrical appliances and will leave space for future technological developments in the most efficient classes (A and B), so that consumers will find labels whose better energy score is a
B and the most frequent will be class D and lower.
Thus, the new label will expand the energy efficiency options in the luminous source market and will promote the technological development of more efficient products.
This new classification is determined by the development, at European level, of new test methods on the energy efficiency of electrical appliances.
These are the same methods used by laboratories and manufacturers in their trials, which incorporate important changes in their measurement mechanisms to adapt more effectively to the actual use that is made of these products in households.
This test methodology means both consumption and energy classification of an electrical product can vary with respect to the old labels and there is no correlation between the new classification and the previous one, so that an apparatus rated so far as A +++ can pass
To be labeled as Class B, C or even lower depending on the application of these new test rules.
In short, the high efficiency product continues to be the same, but may experience changes in its energy classification due to these new test methods.
In the 14 business days following September 1, the consumer will continue to find the old label in some sources of lighting.
Beyond this date, until May 31, 2022, the old label will only be found on discontinued products that will not be produced.
