European Parliament has approved the new A to G scale showing the energy efficiency of household appliances. Voting closed with 535 favorable, 46 not favorable and 79 abstentions.
With this new system customers will find the new rating scale without “+” (“A+/A++/etc.”) in shops at the earliest at the end of 2019. To keep pace with improvements in energy efficiency, any future re-classification will be triggered when 30% of products sold on the EU market fall into the top energy efficiency class A, or when 50% of these products fall into the top two energy efficiency classes A and B. Dario Tamburrino, the EP rapporteur, underlined the fundamental role of energy efficiency at home and the help new smart appliances can give consumers to know how much energy a device uses.
«Citizens will have a clear, smart, digital system – Tamburrano stated – Thanks to open, accessible data, new tools will allow citizens to compare products based on their habits and so buy more wisely. Smart appliances are the new frontier of energy efficiency and will measure how much and when to use it. I expect the Commission to fulfil its commitment to give Europeans a redress mechanism beyond the two-year warranty.»
According to the new regulation, the labels will be placed on the products in printed format and their on-line versions and product information will be searchable and downloadable. In the event of updates that would affect the energy efficiency of a product already purchased, the supplier should inform the customer.
Any visual advertisement or technical promotional material should refer to the energy efficiency class and to the scale available on the label, and information campaigns for consumers will be run in order to highlight the newly introduced versions of the labels.
