Directive Decoder

The scope of the directive is very wide and covers, in principle, any product which when in use depends on, generates, transfers or measures energy whether it be electricity, fossil fuel or renewable.
Before an implementing measure can be put in place for a particular product sector, certain criteria have to be met to ensure that there really is a need and benefit for doing so.
A product must:
 Sell more than 200,000 units per year in the EU
 Have a significant environmental impact
 Present significant potential for improvement
Also, Implementing Measures must not have a significant negative impact on:
 A products price or performance
 On the competitiveness of EU industry
Studies will be carried out in 2007 with implementing measures and adoption throughout 2008 and 2009.

So what type of products are the European Commission looking at? The categories to be reviewed, on-going or even complete are as follows:
 Public street lighting
 Battery chargers and external power supplies
 Personal computers (desktops & laptops) and monitors
 Consumer electronics: televisions
 Standby and off-mode losses of EuPs
 Office lighting
 Domestic refrigerators and freezers
 Domestic dishwashers and washing machines
 Boilers and combi-boilers (gas/oil/electric)
 Water heaters (gas/oil/electric)
 Imaging equipment: copiers, faxes, printers, scanners, multifunctional devices
 Commercial refrigerators and freezers: chillers, display cabinets and vending machines
 Residential air conditioning and ventilation appliances
 Electric motors, water pumps (in commercial buildings, drinking water, food, agriculture) circulators in buildings and ventilation fans (non-residential)
 Domestic lighting (phase 1)

Further studies planned:
 Solid fuel small combustion installations (in particular heating)
 Laundry dryers
 Vacuum cleaners
 Set top boxes (possible split into “simple converter boxes” for free-to-air broadcast / TV and “complex boxes” for pay content)
 Domestic lighting (phase 2)

The effect of any implementing measure will be significant since it requires the CE conformity mark to be placed on all affected products and a declaration of conformity issued stating that the product complies with the relevant provisions of the implementing measure (for example, meeting energy consumption targets).
Completed studies are useful to help illustrate the type of requirements that need to be considered. It should be noted that studies provide options, they do not make recommendations. For example:

Battery chargers and external power supplies
This study identified the best available technology that is currently in use as well as new developments that will be available in the near future. It is likely that implementing measures will force designers to utilise new energy technologies including:
 Switch-mode power conversion
 Integrated ICs
 Efficient transistors such as MOSFETs
 Resonant switching
 Synchronous power rectification

Designs will also need to have low power consumption when not under load. Nokia, for example, plan to develop a battery charger that tells the user to unplug it when not in use.
There are many things that designers can do to reduce energy consumption in use as well as innovative approaches such as the Nokia charger. Some ideas include:
 Design equipment with good ventilation and low power dissipation components to avoid the need for fans. Fans consume significant amounts of power
 The power consumption of ICs and other components (motors, motor controllers, transformers, etc.) varies considerably although the information is often hidden in lengthy datasheets. Choose low power consumption components
 Use lower voltages. Power consumption is directly proportional to voltage and so halving voltage halves power consumption
 Use active power management to switch off systems and functions that are not in use. Battery life of mobile phones and laptop computers has been greatly increased by this approach
 Minimise the number of supply rails in a product as well as using low voltages
 Use LCD instead of CRT displays. LCDs also use less power than LED indicators or filament lamps.
 Use switch mode power supplies instead of linear power supplies

Low power designs can have other benefits, reliability tends to be better and the life of components, such as electrolytic capacitors, will be longer if the operating temperature is lower.

Eco-design is not only about energy consumption and although this is the current priority, all aspects of design should be considered. Avoiding hazardous substances if possible, difficult to recycle materials (also encouraged by the WEEE directive) and rare metals such as gold that use huge amounts of energy to extract and use very toxic substances to refine (cyanide) is always advisable.

In the short term there may well be an increase in the cost of product development – including research, environmental impact assessment, procurement of technologies and patents, and energy consumption testing.
However, in the medium and long term environmental impact will be factored into business strategies and costs will be lowered by optimising design, controlling materials during manufacturer and reducing disposal costs.

Directive Decoder