eceee: Proposed TV label does not reflect the rapid market development

(02 Mar 10) eceee welcomes the revised proposal for TV label requirements, but notes that the current proposal fails to fully reflect the rapid market developments of TV energy efficiency. Requirements for class A should be more stringent and the label should contain level A+ already when it is introduced.

“We are very happy about the proposal and hope that we will soon have a EU labelling scheme established”, says Nils Borg, Executive Director of eceee, the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. “It is important, however, that the label reflects the rapid market developments as adequate as possible and as a minimum, the A+ class must be on the label already”.

eceee concludes that market research by TopTen as well as the Swedish Energy Agency shows that there would be A+ models on the market already with today’s proposal. Yet, the label would not reflect this development when it is introduced. Therefore, the label must include A+ as the best class.

As an alternative, the requirements for attaining class A should be made stricter, according to eceee.

In short, eceee would like to see the following changes

• The requirements for achieving class A should be made stricter than in the Commission’s current proposal.
• As an alternative, if stricter requirements for attaining class A is not acceptable, the label should contain the A+ band already at the time of introduction instead of 2013, since there are TVs already meeting the proposed A+ requirement today.
• The bands between A and A+++ should be made more narrow, without compromising the level of A+++. This should be combined with an introduction of A+++ which is earlier than currently proposed. This would fit well with stricter requirements for attaining class A.
  
  

Overview of label updates: Commission and eceee’s two proposals

See eceee’s full comments (pdf)
See eceee’s eco-design pages on Televisions
See eceee’s pages on labelling
See TopTen's recommendations
See comments from the Swedish Energy Agency

More eceee views