Richard Brown Managing Director at Electrorad Electric Heating answers questions on the forthcoming changes to the Eco-Design Directive and explains how Electrorads products comply.
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What is the Eco-Design directive?
It is a new European regulation relating to Energy Related Products ( ErP )
In essence Lot 20 of the ErP directive requires a reduction in the energy consumption and emissions of space heating products, this must be done by applying existing technologies without any increase in the combined purchasing and operating costs, so clearly a positive development from an energy saving perspective and ultimately for the end users.
So what features are required to comply?
Lot 20 requires manufacturers to incorporate several functions into their products. These could include temperature control with day and/or week timers, presence detection, open window detection, adaptive start control and distance control functions to name but a few. This means that products will become more sophisticated and therefore greater consideration will need to be given when choosing electric radiators as some will have a just few new functions others will have multiple.
When does it come in to force?
Products need to comply with these new regulations by 1st January 2018
Are Electrorad products ready?
We have been working hard to develop our radiators by adding the necessary functions as mentioned above and all our products will be compliant by September 2017, at least 3 months before the Jan 2018 deadline ,in fact we are aiming to have our products ahead of the game with some of the advanced functions we are adding.
So what are the functions the Electrorad radiators have?
As we always aim to give our customers the most advanced radiators we are in a position where some of the functions already exist and where not they are being added.
All radiators in our ranges have or will have:
Highly accurate room thermostat control
7 day / 24 hour timing control
Open window detection
Adaptive start control (learning when to turn on, achieving optimum comfort )Distance control
WiFi based app control
Richard adds “We are also working on a function not included in the directive to make our products even easier to use – Voice Control!
Our radiator will also soon be compatible with Amazon Alexa, a worlds first in our marketplace we believe, this means you can simply ask Alexa to turn a radiator on or off and change temperatures”
He continues “I think we will see many products and maybe even manufacturers simply disappear from the market as there is considerable investment, both in money and time needed to meet with this new directive as non-compliant electric radiators will just not be available for sale after 1st January”
For further information regarding Electrorads full product range (Aeroflow, Digi-Line and Vanguard) visit www.electrorad.co.uk or call 0113 274 6799.
