The EU Council of Ministers gave the green light, on 24 September, to a draft regulation amending existing energy labelling of electrical lamps for domestic use (apart from directional lamps) and extending these new provisions to directional and professional-use lamps.
The measure follows on from the adoption, in 2009, of regulations imposing ecodesign requirements on lamps for domestic and professional use. Regulation No 874/2012 entered into force on 16 October 2012 and shall start applying from 1 September 2013 for lamps and from 1 March 2014 for luminaires.
Scope
Regulation (EU) No 874/2012 establishes requirements for the labelling of and the provision of supplementary product information on electrical lamps such as:
- Filament lamps,
- Fluorescent lamps,
- High-intensity discharge lamps,
- LED lamps and LED modules,
and for the labelling of luminaires designed to operate such lamps and marketed to end users, including when they are integrated into other products that are not dependent on energy input in fulfilling their primary purpose during use.
General Requirements
Regulation (EU) No 874/2012 specifies notably:
- Design and content for the labels of lamps and luminaires,
- Content of the product fiche for lamps,
- Content of the technical documentation for lamps and luminaires,
- Terms of inclusion of the Energy efficiency class in advertisements and technical promotional material of lamps and luminaires,
- Information to be provided where end-users cannot be expected to see lamps and luminaires displayed (ex. for distance selling),
and the relevant obligations of dealers and suppliers of lamps and luminaires.
Label design for lamps and luminaires presented at a point of sale
For lamps, there are several types of labels depending on whether the label is printed on the packaging or not and depending on the information already provided o the packaging.
For luminaires, there is one generic type of label with several variants depending on whether the luminaire:
- is compatible with lamps of specific energy classes only,
- is compatible with lamps of all energy classes,
- contains only non-replaceable LED modules,
- contains both non-replaceable LED modules and sockets for user-replaceable lamps, with lamps included, and
- contains both non-replaceable LED modules and sockets for user-replaceable lamps, with lamps not included.
See the different labels in Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 874/2012.
Energy Efficiency Classes for Lamps
Methods for calculating the EEI as well as the energy consumption of lamps are set out in Annex VII of Regulation (EU) No 874/2012.
