New EU regulation for commercial refrigerated display cabinets
Are you ready for 1 March 2021?
In December 2019, new EU regulations for commercial refrigerated display cabinets were published. The regulations introduce energy labelling and ecodesign requirements for i.a. the energy consumption of appliances. The new rules become effective on 1 March 2021.
The requirements are going to apply to the following products:
- Display cabinets (remote and plug-in)
- Beverage coolers
- Ice cream freezers
- Vending machines
- Gelato ice cream freezers.
The energy label indicates the energy class of a product, where A is the best and G is the worst energy class. The requirements, which allow a product into the best energy classes, are very strict. In 2021, when the regulations enter into force, there will probably not be any products in the two best energy classes. In the past, there was no common rules for these products.
Danish Technological Institute (DTI) can help you prepare your product for these new requirements.
Test equipment and test standards
In recent years, several new test standards have been prepared for the below mentioned product groups.
The current test standards:
- Display cabinets: EN23953
- Beverage coolers: EN16902
- Ice cream freezers: EN16901
- Vending machines: EN50597
- ‘Gelato’ ice cream freezers: EN16838.
Danish Technological Institute has achieved all these standards and performs accredited testing according to them all – except for the standard relating to ’gelato ice cream freezers’.
Danish Technological Institute has built new test facilities and is, therefore, ready to help manufacturers and users of commercial refrigerated display cabinets to measure energy consumption and determine the energy class of a given product, etc. The institute is also ready to help authorities clarify whether products meet the new requirements.The tests are carried out in climate class 3 (25 °C, 60% RH], except for ice cream freezers and ‘gelato’ ice cream freezers. In these latter cases, the tests are carried out in climate class 4 (30 °C, 55% RH].
Energy labelling
The following table indicates which energy class the products can achieve according to their Energy Efficiency Index (EEI).
Energy classes in the new regulation on energy labelling for commercial refrigerated display cabinets.
The requirements, which allow a product into the best energy classes, are very strict. In 2021, when the regulation on energy labelling becomes effective, there will probably not be any products in the two best energy classes. The regulation as well as this pamphlet describe how the EEI is determined for the different types of commercial refrigerated display cabinets.
The new testing facilities at DTI can test vertical sales cabinets with up to six glass doors, and remote supermarket cabinets are tested with CO2 as refrigerant from a condensing unit installed at DTI.
The new energy label
This is how the energy label will look like for commercial refrigerated display cabinets. Beverage coolers and ice cream freezers will get another variant of this energy label.
The bottom-left shows the size of the appliance in volume (vending machines) or total display area (TDA) (supermarket display cabinets and ’gelato’ ice cream freezers) in terms of refrigeration and freezing, respectively.
The bottom-right shows the temperature level of the refrigeration and/or freezer cabinets (maximum and minimum), respectively.
Market control
The national authorities are responsible for carrying out market control of products. In Denmark, the responsible authority is the Danish Safety Technology Authority (Sikkerhedsstyrelsen]. However, in the EU project EEpliant, a number of countries collaborate on carrying out market control of e.g. household refrigerating appliances and professional refrigerated storage cabinets for i.a. commercial kitchens. In the future, something similar can be expected for commercial refrigerated display cabinets.
Market control is done by requiring documentation of the declared values for e.g. energy efficiency. Market surveillance can also be done by selecting products for testing. If the product fails the test, an
additional three products will be tested. If they also fail the test, the product does not comply with the regulations, which will be communicated to the other EU member states.
Testing tolerance: The volume (or TDA] must not be more than 3% lower than the declared value, and the energy consumption must not be more than 10% higher than the declared value.
Evaluation
The introduction of the new regulations for commercial refrigerated display cabinets has been received positively. All stakeholders have been waiting for this initiative, and the process has taken more than 10 years. Analyses show that the energy saving potential is great.
Annex V of the proposal for ecodesign requirements provides a data list of benchmarks for the most energy efficient products. This data corresponds to an EEI of typically 30-50, which corresponds to energy class C and D. One has to get used to the fact that energy label C is a really good product.
It is to be expected that the implementation of the regulations will eradicate many (and perhaps all) open cabinets, i.e. cabinets without glass lids or doors. Over time, there has been an ongoing debate that glass
doors and glass lids in supermarket display cabinets reduce sales. However, the trend is that more and more supermarket chains are accepting glass coverage.
View the two regulations in all EU languages
EUR-Lex about energy labelling
Testing of commercial refigerated display cabinets, please contact
Hans Walløe, haw@teknologisk.dk, +45 72 20 24 72
Esben Vendelbo Foged, evf@teknologisk.dk, +45 72 20 20 46