How the life-cycle of a product can reduce its environmental impact

In October 2009, the European Commission (EC) published a framework Directive for energy-related products, thereby extending the scope of application to products that use, generate, transfer and measure energy. This includes products under the previous scope (e.g. electrical appliances) as well as other products such as windows and insulation.

The objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other adverse environmental impacts throughout the life-cycle of a product. Emphasis is being placed on the design and development stages of a product with a view to improving its energy efficiency.

Ecodesign regulations require manufacturers to decrease the energy consumption of their products by establishing minimum energy efficiency standards. By setting these standards at European level, manufacturers do not have to navigate through multiple national regulations when launching their products on the market.

The ecodesign requirements for individual product groups are created under the EU’s Ecodesign Directive, a process managed by the European Commission.

From a product perspective, there are really two main aspects that manufacturers need to consider, namely seasonal efficiency of the appliance and the emissions, notably of nitrogen oxide. The regulations establish how these factors are calculated but the essence is to increase efficiency of the appliance whilst reducing its emissions of nitrogen oxide.

The energy-related products directive has already been implemented for washing machines, TVs, kettles, gas boilers and a number of other products and the new regulations will be applying to warm air heaters from January 2018.

There are essentially two critical dates that need to be recognised.

• For all warm air heaters, the requirements for Seasonal Efficiency must be achieved on the 1st of January 2018.
• For all warm air heaters, the requirements for Emissions (NOx) must be achieved on the 26th of September 2018.
• For Johnson & Starley air heaters this means that the standard efficiency Hi-Spec and Economaire ranges will not meet the seasonal efficiency requirement at the 1st of January 2018.

To enable the heaters to be placed on the market they must be fully compliant with the regulation.

However, appliances in the supply chain after the implementation date, can still be sold but they must be covered by an order, written or verbal. In other words, orders would need placing for the non-condensing ranges of warm air heaters, the HiSpec and Economaire, by the end of December 2017 to comply with the new regulation. Providing these orders are in place, Johnson & Starley are able to sell these two models of heaters up until 26th September 2018

Naturally, Housing Associations and Social Housing who currently own, or are looking to upgrade their stock will wonder what the availability of spare parts will be. There is need to worry.

Johnson and Starley has always been committed to keeping spare parts for heaters available for as long as possible and will not be making exceptions for these or any of our model ranges. Parts will be available for a minimum of 10 years after production of these 2 models of heaters has ceased. Johnson & Starley currently supply spares for heaters that are 50 years old as we believe cost of ownership is extremely important to our customers.

We are so confident in our products that we are extending the guarantee period for the Economaire and Hi-Spec heaters from 1 to 3 years

So what will be the Johnson & Starley warm air heater line-up be from 2018 onwards? We launched our highly successful range of WarmCair condensing heaters in 2013 which now come with a 5 year Guarantee. Our market leading QuanTec range of boilers can connect to the Aquair our warm air heat emitter range. Again these come with extended Guarantees of 8 years for the QuanTec range of boilers and 5 years for our Aquair range.

These units are highly efficient, giving customers significant savings on running costs and meeting all future ecodesign regulation requirements, future proofing our market leading products and giving warm air a strong footing for the coming years as Hi spec and Economaire hand over the baton.

For more information please visit www.johnsonandstarley.co.uk.